FROM   THE   LIBRARY   OF 
REV.    LOUIS    FITZGERALD    BENSON.   D.  D. 

BEQUEATHED    BY   HIM   TO 

THE   LIBRARY  OF 

PRINCETON  THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARY 


FRANCIS  SCOTT  KEY 

THE  slender  volume.  "  Francis  Scott 
Key.  Author  of  'The  Star-Spangled 
Banner';  What  Else  He  Was  and 
Who  He  Was  "  (Washington:  Key-Smith 
&  Co.).  and  written  by  F.  S.  Key-Smith,  a 
member  of  the  bar  of  the  District  of 
Columbia,  although  lacking  somewhat  in 
literary  form  and  style,  is  nevertheless  an 
addition  of  some  value  to  the  biographical 
history  of  the  country-  The  author— pre- 
sumabl5r  a  relative  of  his  subject— has 
taken  much  pains  to  get  together  the 
complete  life  story  of  the  author  of  our 
national  anthem,  and  the  account  he 
presents  of  Mr.  Key's  character  and 
achievements  is  a  flattering  full-length 
picture  of  the  man.  Mr.  Key-Smith 
traces  the  genealogy  of  his  subject  from 
the  time  of  the  coming  to  this  country 
.from  England  of  a  certain  Philip  Key  in 
172t3;  and,  after  describing  the  influences 
under  which  the  poet  spent  his  youth, 
devotes  much  attention  to  his  career  as 
a  lawyer  and  statesman.  He  argued 
many  important  cases  before  the  Su- 
preme Court,  and  was  several  times  Dis- 
trict Attorney  of  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia. There  is  also  a  detailed  account- 
perhaps  the  most  circumstantial  that  has 
ever  been  published  —  of  the  incidents 
leading  up  to  the  circumstances  in  which 
Key  wrote  the  song  that  gained  for  him 
natioual  renown.  The  author  takes  issue 
with  some  of  the  statements  made  by 
George  Theodore  Sonneck,  of  the  Library 
of  Congress,  in  his  "  Report  "  on  our 
patriotic  songs,  and  gives  very  good  rea- 
sons for  his  own  contentions.  The  book 
has  several  illustrations,  and  contains  a 
number  of  poems  written  by  Key  as  well  as 
one  which  (as  pointed  out  in  this  Review 
on  April  23)  was  published  in  England 
when  Key  was  in  his  teens  and  is  there- 
fore wrongly  ascribed  to  him.  The  book's 
appearance  is  timely,  in  view  of  the  un- 
veiling of  a  monument  to  Key  at  Balti- 
more on  May  15. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


http://archive.org/details/francissOOsmit 


FRANCIS     SCOTT     KEY 


V' 

sep  21  mi 


•i 


FRANCIS  SCOTT  KEY 

AUTHOR  OF 

THE  STAR  SPANGLED  BANNER 

WHAT  ELSE  HE  WAS 
AND  WHO 


BY 


F.  S.  Key-Smith,  Esq. 

Member  of  the 
Bar  of  the  District  of  Columbia 


Published  by 

KEY-SMITH  AND  COMPANY 

Evans  Building,  Washington,  D.  C. 


Copyright 

F.  S.  Key-Smith 

1911 


Printed  by 

National  Capital  Press,  Inc. 

Book  Manufacturers 

Washington,  D.  C. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


PAGE 


Foreword   6 

Acknoivledgments   7 

Our  Patriot 8 

I.  His  Ancestors 9 

II.  His  Early  Years 13 

III.  As  a  Churchman  and  Christian . .   16 

IV.  The  Lawyer 23 

V.  The  Statesman  and  Diplomat ...  44 

VI.  The  Star  Spangled  Banner 62 

VII.  The  Old  Georgetown  Home 89 

VIII.  In  Conclusion 92 

IX.  Heaven  Claims  Its  Own 96 

Appendix   99 


FOREWORD 

This  volume  is  designed  to  give  a  better 
insight  into  the  character,  and  to  make 
known  the  many  and  varied  talents  and 
achievements,  of  Francis  Scott  Key,  for  in 
composing  his  tribute  to  his  country's  flag, 
contained  in  the  beautiful  lines  of  the 
"Star  Spangled  Banner,"  the  splendor 
with  which  he  crowned  his  name  has  shone 
so  brightly  that  it  has  extinguished  the 
brilliancy  of  his  many  other  great  deeds 
and  signal  services,  so  that  little,  if  any- 
thing, is  known  of  them. 

A  belief  that  the  American  people  will  be 
interested  in  learning  something  of  the 
author  of  their  National  Anthem,  as  a 
man,  a  lawyer,  orator  and  statesman,  as 
well  as  a  poet  and  patriot,  has  prompted 
the  preparation  and  publication  of  this 
book,  a  task  by  no  means  light,  involving 
both  courage  and  industry.  Should  it  be 
graciously  received  the  author  will  not  re- 
gret the  labor,  research  and  time  expended. 

F.  S.  Key-Smith. 

Washington,  D.  C,  March  1, 1911. 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

In  the  preparation  of  this  book,  for  as- 
sistance rendered,  my  acknowledgments 
are  due  to  Mr.  Bichard  Bathbun,  of  the 
Smithsonian  Institution,  to  whom  I  am  in- 
debted for  the  picture  of  the  original  flag ; 
to  Mr.  John  T.  Loomis,  of  Washington, 
D.  C,  for  the  picture  and  letter  of  Mr. 
Samuel  Sands,  who  first  set  the  words  in 
type;  to  Mr.  Hugh  T.  Taggart,  of  Wash- 
ington, D.  C,  for  interest  and  encourage- 
ment; to  Miss  Alice  Key  Blunt,  of  Balti- 
more, Md.,  for  much  assistance  derived 
from  many  old  manuscripts  and  letters ;  to 
Mr.  Frank  Key  Howard  and  sister,  Miss 
Nancy  Howard,  of  Baltimore,  Md.,  for  the 
picture  of  Key  appearing  as  frontispiece; 
to  the  Pennsylvania  Academy  of  Fine  Arts 
at  Philadelphia  for  the  portrait  of  Key 
from  Charles  Willson  Peale's  oil  painting, 
and  to  Mr.  Lawrence  C.  Wroth  and  Edwin 
Higgins,  Esq.,  of  Baltimore,  for  many 
courtesies  extended. 

The  encouragement  and  kindness  shown 
me  by  the  above  has  lightened  very  greatly 
the  task  assumed. 


10  FRANCIS   SCOTT   KEY 

named:  Richard  Ward;  Philip;  Thomas; 
Francis;  Edmond;  John  and  Susannah 
Gardiner:  Edmond  studied  law  in  England 
and  upon  his  return  to  Maryland  he  prac- 
ticed his  profession  with  much  success  and 
gained  distinction,  becoming  the  Attorney 
General  of  the  Province. 

Francis  married  Ann  Arnold  Ross,  a 
daughter  of  John  Ross,  who  came  to  this 
country  in  an  official  capacity  connected 
with  the  land  office  in  1730,  and  settled  in 
Ann  Arundel  County  near  Annapolis. 

Here  at  the  junction  of  the  Severn  River 
with  Round  Bay,  seven  miles  from  An- 
napolis, he  built  a  large  spacious  Manor 
House  on  his  estate  named  Belvoir.  This 
is  also  still  standing.  The  materials  used 
in  its  construction  were  in  all  probability 
brought  from  England.  In  the  walls,  which 
are  sixteen  inches  in  thickness,  are  wide 
windows  with  deep  recesses  extending 
nearly  to  the  one-time  beautiful  floors  of 
hard  polished  oak. 

To  the  marriage  of  Francis  Key  with 
Ann  Arnold  Ross  were  born  three  children, 
John  Ross  Key,  Philip  Barton  Key  and 
Elizabeth  Scott  Key.  John  Ross  married 
Ann  Phoebe  Dagworthy  Charlton. 

Upon  his  father  dying  intestate,  he,  be- 
ing the  eldest,  by  the  English  law  of  primo- 


HIS    ANCESTORS  11 

geniture  then  in  force  in  the  Colony,  in- 
herited the  whole  of  the  estate.  However, 
with  a  nobleness  of  spirit  and  generosity 
rarely  seen,  he  divided  equally  with  his 
younger  brother.  And  again,  upon  his 
brother's  share  being  confiscated  because 
of  his  loyalty  to  England  during  the  Bevo- 
lution,  although  John  Boss  Key  had  fought 
with  distinction  in  the  American  cause  as 
an  officer  of  the  Continental  Army  and 
given  largely  of  his  finances  toward  its 
support,  he,  nevertheless,  again  divided  his 
inheritance  with  his  brother. 

He  made  his  home  upon  his  estate,  Terra 
Bubra,  in  Frederick  County,  Maryland. 
Here  was  born  to  him  two  children,  a  son 
and  a  daughter,  Francis  Scott  Key  and 
Ann  Arnold  Key. 

The  daughter  married  Boger  Brooke 
Taney,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  under 
President  Jackson  and  subsequently  Chief 
Justice  of  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court. 

Amid  fertile  valleys  skirted  by  tall 
wooded  mountain  ranges,  upon  this  estate 
of  nearly  three  thousand  acres,  through 
which  flowed  Pipe  Creek,  Francis  Scott 
Key  and  his  sister  roamed  and  were 
reared. 

Out  across  the  green  fields  and  meadows 


12  FRANCIS   SCOTT   KEY 

where  grazed  the  peaceful  herds  and  flocks, 
or  waved  in  the  warm  bright  sunshine  the 
golden  grain,  from  the  verandas  of  their 
home  they  could  gaze  and  dreamily  idle 
away  their  childhood  days.  Thus  imbibing 
all  that  is  best  and  purest  in  nature  is  it 
remarkable  that  there  was  added  to  his 
many  other  qualities  and  talents,  a  Chris- 
tian's soul  and  a  poet's  fervor?  To  her 
many  graces,  the  little  girl,  so  tenderly 
reared,  should  have  possessed  in  woman- 
hood such  exceptional  qualities  as  to  touch 
and  hold  the  unimpulsive  heart  of  her  hus- 
band, a  most  phlegmatic  man,  a  great  law- 
yer and  jurist? 


FRANCIS     SCOTT     KEY 
From  Charles  Willson  Peale's  Oil  Painting 


CHAPTER  II. 

His  early  years. 

But  to  draw  the  curtain  from  across  the 
portal  which  opens  out  upon  the  modest 
yet  firm  and  beautiful  life,  so  full  of 
healthy  example  and  worthy  of  emulation, 
of  the  principal  dramatis  persona  of  this 
book.  That  richly  endowed  and  very  tal- 
ented man,  who  combined  in  such  rich  per- 
fusion and  rare  perfection  all  of  the  most 
admirable  qualities  of  the  Christian,  pa- 
triot, statesman,  lawyer  and  poet,  Francis 
Scott  Key.  Nature  ushered  him  into  the 
trials  and  hardships  of  this  life  on  the  9th 
day  of  August,  1780,  and  during  nearly 
sixty-three  years  of  sojourn  in  this  world, 
as  expressed  by  one  of  his  granddaughters, 
he  ever  "kept  the  stars  in  sight,  though  the 
stripes  of  life  were  laid  upon  him,  as  upon 
all." 

Much  of  his  early  life  while  attending 
school  and  college  was  spent  with  relatives 
in  and  around  Annapolis.  At  Belvoir  he 
was  tutored  in  the  first  branches  of  a  lib- 
eral education  and  received  much  religious 
instruction. 

His  grandmother,  Mrs.  Key,  was  totally 
blind,  having  lost  her  eyesight  by  fire  and 

13 


14  FEANCIS    SCOTT    KEY 

smoke  in  rescuing  two  of  her  servants 
from  the  flames  when  her  father's  house 
was  burned.  Her  Christian  fortitude  un- 
der her  terrible  affliction  impressed  itself 
deeply  upon  his  pure  and  highly  sensitive 
nature,  and  no  doubt  had  much  to  do  with 
his  own  sublime  and  perfect  faith. 

During  his  attendance  at  St.  John's  Col- 
lege, where  he  was  graduated,  he  resided 
with  his  great-aunt,  his  grandmother's  sis- 
ter, Mrs.  Upton  Scott,  who  was  Elizabeth 
Ross. 

A  fellow  student  of  Roger  Brooke  Taney, 
he  read  law  in  the  office  of  Jeremiah  Town- 
ley  Chase.  He  was  required  to  give  strict 
attendance  at  court,  that  he  might  the  bet- 
ter learn  from  observation  and  experience. 

Having  spent  so  much  of  his  youth  in 
and  about  Annapolis,  it  was  only  natural 
that  one  of  the  belles  of  Maryland's  Capi- 
tal City  should  have  captivated  his  heart. 
In  1802  he  married  Mary  Tayloe  Lloyd, 
granddaughter  of  Edward  Lloyd,  Royal 
Governor  of  the  Colony  from  1709  to  1714. 
The  wedding  took  place  in  the  mahogany 
wainscoted  drawing  room  of  the  old  Lloyd 
house,  which  was  built  in  1772,  and  is  now 
in  good  state  of  preservation.  He  had 
eleven  children,  six  boys  and  five  girls, 
Elizabeth  Phoebe;  Maria  Lloyd;  Francis 


HIS    EARLY    YEARS  15 

Scott,  Jr.;  John  Boss;  Ann  Arnold;  Ed- 
ward Lloyd;  Daniel  Murray;  Philip  Bar- 
ton; Ellen  Lloyd:  Alice;  and  Charles 
Henry. 

In  his  suit  for  the  hand  of  his  bride  his 
closest  rival  was  his  best  friend,  Daniel 
Murray,  and  it  has  been  very  properly  ob- 
served it  was  a  remarkable  fact  that  he 
retained  this  friendship,  a  circumstance 
which  testifies  most  strongly  to  the  great 
characters  of  both.  It  is  said  that  Miss 
Lloyd  would  make  curl  papers  of  his  love 
sonnets  and  took  particular  pains  that  he 
should  learn  of  it. 


CHAPTER  III. 

As  a  Churchman  and  Christian. 

A  devout  Christian,  he  was  a  regular  at- 
tendant at  church  and  took  an  active  part 
in  all  religious  affairs.  At  family  prayers, 
which  he  regularly  conducted  twice  a  day, 
every  member  of  his  family,  including  the 
servants,  were  required  to  be  in  attend- 
ance. In  the  Sunday  School  he  taught  a 
Bible  class  of  young  men  for  many  years, 
and  was  one  of  the  vestrymen  of  St.  John's 
Episcopal  Church  in  Georgetown. 

At  the  present  time  can  be  seen  on  the 
east  wall  of  this  church  a  tablet  bearing 
an  inscription  of  his  composition*  to  the 
memory  of  the  Rev.  Johannes  I.  Sayrs,  a 
former  rector.  In  later  years  his  own 
memory  has  been  perpetuated  in  a  memo- 
rial window  in  Christ  Church,  Georgetown. 
However,  the  best  memorial,  bearing  trib- 
ute to  his  Christianity  and  religious  effort, 
is  possibly  to  be  found  in  his  own  lines  in 
the  hymn  beginning,  "Lord,  with  glowing 
heart  I'd  praise  Thee."f  The  last  two 
lines,    namely:    "And,    since    words    can 

*See  Appendix. 

fThe  complete  hymn  is  to  be  found  in  the  Appendix. 

16 


AS  A  CHURCHMAN   AND   CHRISTIAN         17 

never  measure,  Let  my  life  show  forth  thy 
praise/ '  demonstrate  his  appreciation  of 
the  inadequacy  of  words  to  correctly  ex- 
press a  meaning,  and  typify  his  legal  ac- 
cumen  and  training. 

Upon  the  Rev.  Walter  Dulany  Addison, 
another  former  rector  of  St.  John's,  be- 
coming much  enfeebled  by  age  and  ill 
health  he  was  given  a  lay  reader's  license 
and  for  years  read  the  service  and  visited 
the  sick,  oftentimes  even  holding  up  the 
aged  rector's  arms  while  he  pronounced 
the  benediction. 

In  speaking  of  his  church  work  and  re- 
ligious character,  Mr.  Lawrence  C.  Wroth, 
in  a  very  excellent  and  interesting  article, 
appearing  in  the  June  number  for  1909, 
Maryland  Historical  Magazine,  says  that 
on  at  least  two  occasions  he  seriously  con- 
templated entering  the  ministry.  His  au- 
thority for  the  statement  is  contained  in  a 
letter  to  Mr.  Key  from  Dr.  Kemp  then  rec- 
tor of  St.  Paul's  Church,  Baltimore,  and 
afterwards  suffragan  Bishop  of  Maryland, 
proposing  that  Mr.  Key  enter  the  ministry 
and  suggesting  an  association  with  him,  in 
the  parish  of  St.  Paul's,  and  Mr.  Key's 
replies  under  date  of  Georgetown,  April  4 
and  28, 1814.  In  the  first  of  which  he  says, 
a  few  years  before  he  had  thought  of  pre- 


18  FKANCIS   SCOTT    KEY 

paring  himself  for  the  ministry,  but  adds, 
from  all  the  consideration  he  could  give  the 
subject  he  had  concluded  that  such  a  step 
was  impossible,  and  in  his  letter  of  April 
28,  he  adds  "I  have  thought  a  good  deal 
upon  this  subject,  and  the  difficulties  that 
at  first  occurred  to  me  appear  insurmount- 
able. ' '  Aside  from  a  tendency  towards  the 
ministry,  upon  a  careful  reading  of  this 
correspondence,  it  will  be  seen  he  never  se- 
riously contemplated  the  step.  He  was, 
it  is  true,  a  very  devout  man,  having 
a  very  great  interest  in  the  church 
and  rendered  it  no  doubt  a  very  great 
service  in  many  ways,  being  indefatiga- 
ble in  his  efforts  in  its  behalf,  recon- 
ciling on  more  than  one  occasion  the  two 
factions  of  high  and  low  church,  or  the 
"formalist  and  evangelical. ' '  He  was  of 
the  latter  party  and  differed  greatly  in  his 
views  with  Dr.  Kemp,  and  so  wrote  him. 
He  believed,  as  he  said,  the  Episcopal 
Church  was  the  best  form  of  religion,  but 
he  also  distinctly  said  he  did  not  think  it 
the  only  valid  one. 

He  was  a  delegate  to  every  General  Con- 
vention from  1814  to  1826,  consecutively, 
and  attended  all  excepting  the  first.  Later, 
at  the  Convention  of  1830,  it  was  due  al- 
most entirely  to  his  efforts  that  the  two 
parties  were  reconciled  and  united  upon 


AS  A  CHURCHMAN  AND   CHRISTIAN         19 

one  man,  (in  the  person  of  Rev.  William 
Murray  Stone,)  for  the  Episcopate  of 
Maryland,  and  again  at  the  Convention  of 
1839  he  mollified  the  contending  factions, 
which  brought  about  the  election  of  Bishop 
Whittenham.  At  the  Convention  of  1820 
it  is  said  he  was  the  only  one  allowed  to 
stand  up  in  defense  of  evangelical  truth. 

He  was  a  life-long  friend  of  Bishop 
Meade,  of  Virginia,  who  refers  to  him  as 
such  in  his  celebrated  book, ' '  Old  Churches, 
Ministers  and  Families  of  Virginia.''  A 
trustee  of  the  General  Theological  Semi- 
nary from  its  founding  in  1820  until  his 
death,  and  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Theo- 
logical Seminary  near  Alexandria,  Vir- 
ginia. 

Although  at  all  times  and  in  all  things 
obedient  to  the  canons  of  the  church  and 
respectful  of  its  authority  and  the  author- 
ity of  those  above  him,  he  was  quick  to 
resent  any  unwarranted  rebuke  from  that 
authority.  When  the  differences  of  opin- 
ion existing  between  Dr.  (then  Bishop 
Kemp)  and  himself  led  the  former  to  un- 
justly take  him  to  task  for  doing  what  he 
considered  to  be  his  duty,  he  replied  with 
some  spirit,  stating  at  length  the  excep- 
tional circumstances  under  which  he  had 
felt  called  upon  to  baptize,  at  the  request 
of  its  mother,  a  supposedly  dying  infant, 


20  FRANCIS   SCOTT   KEY 

and  explaining  that  lie  knew  of  no  canon 
of  the  church  prohibiting  lay  baptism  of 
infants,  especially  under  the  circumstances 
which  prompted  him,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
knew  of  several  instances  in  which  it  had 
been  done  and  sanctioned  under  even  less 
imperative  conditions,  he  proceeds,  "This, 
sir,  is  what  I  have  done  and  I  thought  it 
right.  You  think  it  so  clearly  wrong  that 
a  moment's  reflection  ' ought  to  have  ar- 
rested my  progress. '  I  have  reflected  upon 
it  since,  and  deliberately,  and  am  still  with- 
out any  other  reason  for  supposing  it  may 
be  wrong  than  your  telling  me  so.  I  hope, 
sir,  you  will  excuse  me  for  saying  that  this 
(tho'  certainly  worthy  of  serious  consider- 
ation) is  not  sufficient  for  me.  I  can  not 
acknowledge  error  when  I  do  not  see  it, 
and  trust  you  hold  me  so  entitled  to  an 
opinion  of  my  own  as  not  to  be  bound  to 
renounce  it  and  confess  myself  wrong 
merely  because  any  person,  though  entitled 
to  the  greatest  respect,  thinks  differently. ' ' 
From  the  necessarily  brief  consideration 
and  extracts  here  given  of  this  more  or  less 
unfortunate  misunderstanding  it  should 
not  be  assumed  that  Mr.  Key  was  disre- 
spectful to  the  Bishop.  The  correspond- 
ence clearly  shows  the  contrary.  His  let- 
ters show  merely  the  spirit  of  the  man, 
disappointed,  and  perhaps  chafing  some- 


AS  A  CHURCHMAN  AND   CHRISTIAN         21 

what  from  an  unmerited  rebuke  adminis- 
tered by  one  to  whom  he  had  looked  rather 
for  praise  and  sympathy  than  censure  and 
criticism.  No  doubt  Bishop  Kemp's  at- 
titude was  produced  in  a  large  measure  by 
the  difference  of  opinion  existing  between 
them  on  chuch  matters  in  general  accent- 
uated by  the  small  part  taken  by  Mr.  Key 
in  joining  in  a  protest  to  the  House  of 
Bishops  against  his  election.  As  Mr. 
Wroth  very  correctly  observes,  the  Bishop 
seems  never  to  have  quite  forgiven  him,  al- 
though he  refused  to  concur  in  the  charge 
that  the  election  was  the  result  of  "  pre- 
meditated management"  basing  his  joinder 
in  the  protest  upon  the  ground  of  "insuffi- 
cient notice. ' ' 

John  Eandolph  of  Roanoke,  whose  faith 
had  been  greatly  shaken  by  reading  works 
like  Voltaire,  frequently  confided  in  him, 
and  is  said  to  have  been  greatly  restored 
in  his  faith  in  Christianity  in  consequence. 
In  a  letter  to  Randolph  he  disposes  of  the 
arguments  against  Christianity  in  short 
order,  and  pays  a  great  tribute  to  his  un- 
conquerable faith  in  these  words : 

"I  don't  believe  there  are  any  new  ob- 
jections to  be  discovered  to  the  truth  of 
Christianity,  though  there  may  be  some  art 
in  presenting  old  ones  in  a  new  dress.  My 
faith  has  been  greatly  confirmed  by  the 


22  FRANCIS    SCOTT   KEY 

infidel  writers  I  have  read:  and  I  think 
snch  would  be  their  effect  upon  anyone  who 
has  examined  the  evidences.  Our  church 
recommends  their  perusal  to  students  of 
divinity,  which  shows  she  is  not  afraid  of 
them.  Men  may  argue  ingeniously  against 
our  faith,  as  indeed  they  may  against  any- 
thing— but  what  can  they  say  in  defense 
of  their  own — I  would  carry  the  war  into 
their  own  territories,  I  would  ask  them 
what  they  believe — if  they  said  they  be- 
lieved anything,  I  think  that  they  might  be 
shown  to  be  more  full  of  difficulties  and 
liable  to  infinitely  greater  objections  than 
the  system  they  oppose  and  they  were  cred- 
ulous and  unreasonable  for  believing  it. 
If  they  said  they  did  not  believe  anything, 
you  could  not,  to  be  sure,  have  anything 
further  to  say  to  them.  In  that  case  they 
would  be  insane,  or  at  best  illy  qualified  to 
teach  others  what  they  ought  to  believe  or 
disbelieve. ' ' 

For  this  purity  of  character  and  un- 
swerving sincerity  in  his  Christian  faith, 
the  richest  of  his  earthly  rewards  was  the 
exalted  honor,  permitted  him  by  Provi- 
dence, of  immortalizing  his  name  upon  the 
flag  of  his  country  in  christening  it,  1 1  The 
Star  Spangled  Banner." 


THE    ORIGINAL     FLAG 
Suspended  in  front  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution 


CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Lawyer. 

As  a  lawyer  lie  was  equalled  by  few  and 
excelled  by  none.  Among  his  contempora- 
ries lie  took  first  rank,  and  of  most  of  the 
important  causes  the  records  of  those 
courts  before  which  he  practiced  disclose 
his  name  as  attorney  on  one  side  or  the 
other.  When  we  recollect  the  bar  of  his 
day  was  made  up  of  such  men  as  Webster, 
Clay,  Choate,  Wm.  Pinkney,  Luther  Mar- 
tin, Reverdy  Johnson,  William  Wirt,  and 
the  bench  of  such  legal  giants  as  Marshall 
and  Story,  it  is  enough  to  say  that  he  took 
first  rank. 

In  a  letter,  dated  Baltimore,  July  25, 
1875,  Reverdy  Johnson,  one  of  the  most 
distinguished  lawyers  Maryland  and  the 
country  ever  produced,  pays  this  tribute  to 
his  legal  and  literary  talents  and  attain- 
ments : 

"My  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Key  commenced 
some  twenty  years  before  his  death,  and  soon 
ripened  into  friendship.  I  have  argued  cases 
with  him  and  against  him  in  the  courts  of 
Maryland  and  in  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court.  He  had  evidently  been  a  diligent  legal 
student,  and  being  possessed  of  rare  ability, 
he  became  an  excellent  lawyer.     In  that  par- 

23 


24  FRANCIS    SCOTT    KEY 

ticular,  however,  he  would,  I  have  no  doubt, 
have  been  more  profound  but  for  his  fondness 
for  elegant  literature,  and  particularly  for 
poetry.  In  this  last  he  was  himself  quite  a 
proficient.  Some  of  his  writings  are  truly 
gems  of  beauty.  His  style  of  speaking  to  a 
court  was  ever  clear,  and  his  reasoning  logical 
and  powerful;  whilst  his  speeches  to  juries, 
when  the  occasion  admitted  of  it,  were  beau- 
tifully eloquent.  To  the  graces  of  his  many 
accomplishments  he  possessed  what  is  still 
more  to  his  praise,  a  character  of  almost  re- 
ligious perfection.  A  firm  believer  in  the 
Christian  dispensation,  his  conduct  was  regu- 
lated by  the  doctrines  inculcated  by  its  found- 
er and  this  being  so  his  life  was  one  of  perfect 
purity." 

He  began  the  practice  of  law  at  Fred- 
erick, Maryland,  in  1801,  but  subsequently 
removed  to  the  District  of  Columbia,  tak- 
ing up  his  residence  in  Georgetown  and 
forming  an  association  in  the  practice  with 
his  uncle,  Philip  Barton  Key.  Under 
Presidents  Jackson  and  Van  Buren  he  was 
three  times  appointed  United  States  Dis- 
trict Attorney  for  the  District  of  Columbia, 
his  first  appointment  being  confirmed  by 
the  Senate,  January  29,  1833,  and  he  was 
succeeded  on  July  3, 1841,  by  Philip  E.  Fen- 
dall.  During  his  administration  of  the  of- 
fice of  United  States  District  Attorney  he 
demonstrated  his  capabilities  for  that 
important  position  and  his  keen  appre- 
ciation for  its  responsibilities  in  a  most 


THE  LAWYEK 


25 


remarkable  manner.  While  in  attend- 
ance at  the  funeral  in  1835  of  War- 
ren E.  Davis,  a  member  of  Congress 
from  South  Carolina,  as  President  Jack- 
son and  his  cabinet  awaited  on  the  east 
portico  of  the  Capitol  for  the  remains  to 
be  brought  from  the  Eotunda,  a  man  con- 
cealed behind  one  of  the  large  pillars  fired 
at  the  President.  General  Jackson  was  im- 
mediately surrounded  by  his  friends,  who 
interposed  in  his  defense,  and  before  the 
assailant  could  fire  a  second  shot  he  was 
overpowered  and  taken  into  custody. 

Carried  before  the  Circuit  Court  of  the 
United  States  for  the  District  of  Columbia, 
he  was  given  a  hearing.  Mr.  Key,  as  Dis- 
trict Attorney,  conducted  the  examination 
on  behalf  of  the  Government.  Bitter  feel- 
ing against  the  prisoner  was  rife,  as  it  was 
generally  believed  that  the  act  was  insti- 
gated by  a  party  of  political  conspirators 
led  by  a  prominent  man.  The  assailed  was 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  but 
what  was  even  more  to  Mr.  Key,  his  warm 
personal  friend,  to  whom  he  owed  much, 
especially  his  appointment  to  the  office  he 
then  held  and  whose  duties  imposed  upon 
him  the  prosecution  of  the  assailant. 

Entertaining  a  strong  conviction  that  in 
a  criminal  proceeding  the  duty  of  the  rep- 
resentative of  the  government  is  prosecu- 


26  FEANCIS    SCOTT    KEY 

tion  and  not  persecution — an  impartial 
vindication  of  the  law,  and  justice  between 
the  state  and  the  alleged  offender,  his  self- 
control  and  circumspection,  notwithstand- 
ing he  naturally  must  also  have  enter- 
tained an  intense  feeling  against  the  cul- 
prit, prevented  a  miscarriage  of  justice 
and  removed  the  popular  misbelief  of  a 
criminal  conspiracy  against  the  life  of  the 
President,  as  it  was  clearly  shown  by  the 
impartial  and  careful  examination  he  con- 
ducted that  the  prisoner  was  insane. 

During  the  Harrison  and  Van  Buren 
presidential  contest  in  1840  Georgetown 
was  as  much  excited  and  divided  over  the 
campaign  as  any  part  of  the  country,  and 
there  were  lively  times  between  the  Whigs 
and  Democrats.  After  General  Harrison's 
inauguration  half  a  dozen  citizens  of  the 
town  addressed  a  petition  to  the  President 
containing  accusations  against  the  collect- 
or of  the  port,  Eobert  White,  charging  the 
misuse  of  his  office  for  political  purposes 
and  stating  that  he  was  obnoxious  to  his 
fellow-townsmen. 

It  was  requested  that  White  be  removed 
and  Henry  Addison  appointed  in  his  stead. 
These  requests,  or,  as  lawyers  say,  the 
prayers,  of  the  petition  were  granted. 
White  removed  and  Addison  appointed. 


THE  LAWYEB  27 

A  bitter  libel  suit  by  White  against  those 
making  the  charges  resulted.  Mr.  Key, 
Colonel  William  L.  Brent,  and  his  son 
Eobert  J.  Brent,  represented  the  plaintiff, 
while  the  defendants  were  represented  by 
General  Walter  James,  Kichard  L.  Coxe, 
Joseph  H.  Bradley,  John  Marbury,  and 
Bobert  Auld. 

The  trial  came  on  for  hearing  before  the 
Circuit  Court  of  the  District  of  Columbia, 
and  the  court  held  that  the  petition  to  the 
President  containing  the  objectionable 
charges-  against  White,  which  were  the 
foundation  of  the  suit,  being  a  privileged 
communication,  could  not  be  admitted  in 
evidence  or  read  to  the  jury.  Of  course, 
this  ruling  lost  for  the  plaintiff  his  case, 
but  Mr.  Key  did  not  stop  with  this,  he 
promptly  carried  the  case  to  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  where  he  re- 
versed the  judgment  of  the  lower  court. 

A  particular  consideration  of  very  many 
of  the  important  cases  in  which  Mr.  Key 
appeared  as  counsel,  is  impossible  in  a 
book  of  this  size. 

However,  as  the  law  was  his  profession 
and  as  so  little  is  generally  known  of  him 
as  a  lawyer,  it  is  deemed  proper  that  at 
least  a  few  of  the  most  important  ones 
should  be  considered. 


28  FRANCIS   SCOTT    KEY 

When  the  Alexandria  Canal  Company, 
under  authority  conferred  by  Act  of  Con- 
gress, undertook  to  construct  across  the 
Potomac  River  an  aqueduct  for  the  pur- 
pose of  connecting  with  the  Chesapeake 
and  Ohio  Canal,  that  Alexandria  might 
likewise  use  this  waterway  with  George- 
town for  transportation,  it  became  neces- 
sary to  construct  a  number  of  piers  in  the 
river  to  support  an  aqueduct  bridge.  To 
properly  do  this  large  cofferdams  were 
built,  into  which  a  great  deal  of  clay  and 
gravel  was  dumped.  Much  of  this,  in  one 
way  or  the  other  was  spilt  on  the  outside 
of  the  dams  and  washed  down  stream. 
Now,  the  Potomac  was,  of  course,  a  high- 
way, and  in  those  days  used  as  such  a  great 
deal  more  than  at  present,  and  to  obstruct 
the  navigation  of  the  river  was,  of  course, 
a  serious  matter,  and  it  may  be  imagined 
also  that  Georgetown  did  not  care  to  see  an 
outlet  to  the  west  opened  to  Alexandria, 
thus  bringing  its  merchants  into  competi- 
tion with  her  own. 

Under  rights  claimed  from  a  compact 
between  the  states  of  Maryland  and  Vir- 
ginia which  secured  to  the  citizens  of  these 
states  the  free  and  unobstructed  use  of  the 
river,  the  mayor  and  the  citizens  of 
Georgetown,  fearing,  as  they  alleged,  that 
the  channel  would  be  obstructed  and  navi- 


THE  LAWYER  29 

gation  retarded,  applied  to  the  courts  for 
an  injunction  enjoining  the  canal  company 
from  continuing  its  operations  which  they 
termed  a  public  nuisance.  The  duty  of 
prosecuting  the  case  devolved  upon  Mr. 
Key  as  Recorder  of  the  town. 

Upon  the  hearing  of  the  case  in  the  Cir- 
cuit Court  of  the  District  of  Columbia  the 
injunction  was  refused  and  an  appeal  was 
taken  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  where  the  case  was  ably  argued 
and  some  very  interesting  and  nice  ques- 
tions of  law  raised.  Among  other  things 
it  was  contended  that  the  Act  of  Congress 
authorizing  the  construction  of  the  aque- 
duct was  unconstitutional,  as  under  the 
compact  between  Maryland  and  Virginia 
the  city  of  Georgetown  and  its  citizens  had 
a  right  of  property  in  the  free  navigation 
of  the  river  of  which  they  could  not  be  de- 
prived by  an  Act  of  Congress.  The  Su- 
preme Court,  however,  affirmed  the  decree 
of  the  lower  court,  holding  that  the  act  was 
not  unconstitutional,  and  that  whatever 
rights  were  secured  by  the  compact  be- 
tween Maryland  and  Virginia  were  secured 
to  their  citizens  in  their  capacity  as  sover- 
eign states  and  not  as  individuals;  conse- 
quently, upon  the  cession  of  the  District 
of  Columbia  to  the  United  States  the  rights 
under  such  compact  passed  to  the  United 


30  FRANCIS   SCOTT   KEY 

States  and  Congress  could,  if  it  thought 
necessary,  abridge  them. 

In  the  case  of  the  Bank  of  Columbia 
against  Okeley,  involving  another  and 
more  important  question  of  constitutional 
law,  Mr.  Key,  as  the  attorney  for  the  bank, 
was,  on  an  appeal  to  the  Supreme  Court, 
more  successful.  Prior  to  the  cession  of 
the  District  of  Columbia  to  the  United 
States  the  legislative  assembly  of  Mary- 
land, in  the  act  incorporating  the  bank, 
gave  to  its  president  a  summary  remedy 
for  collecting  its  debts  by  which  the  clerk 
of  the  court,  upon  the  sworn  application 
of  the  president,  was  required  to  issue  an 
attachment  against  the  property  of  any 
debtor  of  the  bank  who  had  consented  in 
writing  that  his  bonds,  bills  or  notes  should 
be  negotiable  at  the  bank.  The  defendant, 
Okeley,  became  liable  to  the  bank  for  fail- 
ure to  pay  such  an  obligation,  and  upon 
the  proper  application  being  made  to  the 
clerk  an  attachment  issued  under  which  the 
United  States  Marshal  seized  the  property 
of  the  defendant  in  satisfaction  of  the 
claim. 

Okeley 's  attorneys  made  a  motion  to 
quash  the  attachment  upon  the  ground  that 
the  act  of  the  assembly  of  Maryland  con- 
ferring such  rights  was  void  for  being  con- 
trary to  both  the  Bill  of  Eights  of  Mary- 


THE  LAWYER  31 

land  and  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  in  that  it  deprived  the  defendant  of 
his  right  of  trial  by  jury  guaranteed  by 
those  instruments. 

The  Circuit  Court  took  some  such  view 
of  the  matter,  quashing  the  attachment. 
On  appeal  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  however,  that  court  held,  as 
provision  was  made  in  the  law  securing  to 
the  defendant,  after  seizure  of  his  prop- 
erty, the  right  of  a  trial  by  jury  upon  a 
proper  showing  and  application,  all  rights 
guaranteed  by  either  the  Bill  of  Eights  of 
Maryland  or  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  were  preserved  to  him. 

In  connection  with  this  decision  it  is  in- 
teresting to  note  that  similar  proceedings 
are  now  very  generally  authorized  by 
statute,  especially  where  non-residents  and 
absconding  debtors  are  concerned. 

A  decision  of  much  interest  to  taxpay- 
ers, or,  more  properly  speaking,  to  those 
who  do  not  pay  their  taxes,  is  to  be  found 
in  the  case  of  the  City  of  Washington 
against  Pratt. 

In  this  case,  which  likewise  reached  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  Mr. 
Key  as  the  representative  of  Pratt,  filed 
a  bill  in  equity  to  enjoin  the  corporation 
of  Washington  from  executing  a  deed  of 


32  FRANCIS   SCOTT    KEY 

Pratt's  property  to  certain  purchasers  at 
a  tax  sale. 

The  validity  of  the  attempted  sale  was 
attacked  by  Mr.  Key  upon  some  six  or 
seven  grounds,  all  of  which  the  court  sus- 
tained. The  two  principal  ones  being, 
first;  the  property  was  not  assessed  and 
sold  in  the  name  of  the  true  owner,  and, 
second,  that  more  than  one  lot  was  sold 
when  the  proceeds  from  the  sale  of  any  one 
was  sufficient  to  satisfy  the  taxes  upon  the 
whole.  The  sale  was  accordingly  declared 
void  and  set  aside. 

During  the  latter  years  of  his  life  he  was 
engaged,  among  others,  as  counsel  for  Mrs. 
Myra  Clark  Gaines  in  the  celebrated  con- 
troversy known  as  the  Gaines  case  and 
which  arose  by  reason  of  Daniel  Clark 
making  two  wills,  one  in  1811  and  a  second 
in  1813.  By  the  first  he  left  all  of  his 
property  to  his  mother,  and  the  executors 
thereunder  sold  a  large  lot  of  valuable 
land  belonging  to  him  to  the  City  of  New 
Orleans.  By  the  latter  will  he  left  his 
daughter,  Myra  Clark  Gaines,  his  sole 
beneficiary,  and  upon  coming  of  age  and 
learning  of  her  right  she  instituted  suit  in 
the  New  Orleans  courts  to  recover  her 
property.  In  the  defense  to  her  suits, 
among  other  things  her  legitimacy  was  at- 
tacked.    The  case  occupied  the  attention 


THE  LAWYER  33 

of  the  courts,  both  of  Louisiana  and  the 
United  States,  for  over  a  third  of  a  cen- 
tury. Finally,  however,  Mrs.  Gaines  won, 
but  it  was  not  until  1867,  or  twenty-odd 
years  after  the  death  of  Mr.  Key. 

In  one  of  the  reports  of  the  case  in  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  it  is 
observed :  ' i  The  case,  with  two  accompany- 
ing it,  constituted  the  seventh,  eighth  and 
ninth  appeals  to  this  court  of  a  controversy 
known  as  the  '  Gaines  case. '  For  more  than 
one-third  of  a  century,  in  one  form  and  an- 
other, it  had  been  the  subject  of  judicial 
decision  in  this  court,  and  the  records  now 
— complicated  in  the  extreme — reach  near- 
ly eight  thousand  closely  printed  pages. 
The  court,  when  the  case  was  last  heard 
before  it,  spoke  of  it  as  'one  which,  when 
hereafter  some  distinguished  American 
lawyer  shall  retire  from  his  practice  to 
write  the  history  of  his  country's  jurispru- 
dence, will  be  registered  by  him  as  the 
most  remarkable  in  the  records  of  its 
courts. '  ' '  Space  will  not  permit  of  a  fuller 
consideration  of  the  case  at  this  time,  but 
for  the  information  of  those  who  might 
care  to  investigate  it  further  it  may  be  con- 
cluded by  saying  full  reports  can  be  found 
in  the  reported  decisions  of  the  Supreme 
Courts  of  Louisiana  and  the  United  States. 
Under  titles  of  Gaines  vs.  Hennen,  Freutes 


34  FKANCIS    SCOTT    KEY 

vs.  Gaines,  and  Gaines  vs.  City  of  New  Or- 
leans. From  the  fact  alone  that  Mr.  Key 
was  engaged  in  this  celebrated  case  we 
have  no  difficulty  whatsoever  in  determin- 
ing that  he  stood  as  high  in  his  profession 
as  any  lawyer  of  his  day. 

The  last  case  to  which  I  shall  refer,  is 
extremely  interesting  and,  although,  be- 
cause of  the  most  happy  aud  fortunate 
change  in  the  condition  of  things,  is  no 
longer  of  any  practical  importance,  at- 
tracted at  the  time  a  large  assemblage  of 
refined  and  intelligent  persons  of  both 
sexes  to  the  hearing  before  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States. 

The  case  grew  out  of  the  capture  of  a 
slave  trader  off  the  coast  of  Florida,  then 
Spanish  territory.  A  Spanish  vessel  named 
the  Antelope,  in  the  act  of '  receiving  a 
cargo  of  Africans,  was  captured  on  the 
coast  of  Africa  by  the  Arraganta,  a  priva- 
teer manned  in  Baltimore. 

In  charge  of  a  prize  crew  from  the  Ar- 
raganta she  was  carried  to  the  coast  of 
Brazil,  and  the  Arraganta  being  there 
wrecked,  thence  to  the  coast  of  Florida 
where  she  was  discovered  hovering  very 
near  the  coast  of  the  United  States,  by 
Captain  Jackson  of  the  U.  S.  Eevenue  Cut- 
ter Dallas.  Supposing  her  to  be  either  a 
pirate  or  engaged  in  smuggling  slaves  into 


THE  LAWYER  35 

the  United  States,  the  captain  went  in 
quest  of  her  and,  discovering  that  she  car- 
ried a  cargo  of  slaves  and  was  manned  by 
officers  and  men  who  were  citizens  of  the 
United  States,  he  brought  her  into  the  port 
of  Savannah  for  adjudication  by  the 
United  States  courts  as  lawful  prize. 

The  vice  consuls  of  Spain  and  Portugal 
interposed  claims  on  behalf  of  the  subjects 
of  their  respective  countries,  to  whom  it 
was  alleged  the  vessel  and  slaves  belonged, 
which  claims  the  United  States  opposed, 
upon  the  ground  that  the  trade  in  which 
the  vessel  was  engaged  was  in  violation  of 
the  laws  of  the  United  States,  and  now  that 
she  and  her  cargo  were  within  the  territo- 
rial jurisdiction  of  this  country  they  were 
amenable  to  our  laws.  The  consuls  of 
Spain  and  Portugal  claimed  the  Africans 
as  slaves  who,  in  the  regular  course  of  le- 
gitimate commerce  had  been  acquired  as 
property  by  their  fellow  subjects  and  de- 
manded their  restoration  under  the  law 
of  nations,  and  particularly  under  the 
terms  of  a  treaty  between  the  United 
States  and  Spain  which  provided  that 
property  rescued  from  pirates  should  be 
restored  to  Spanish  owners  on  their  mak- 
ing proof  of  property. 

As  the  founder  and  principal  promoter 
of  the  American  Colonization  Society,  the 


36  FRANCIS    SCOTT    KEY 

object  of  which  was  the  emancipation  and 
colonization  of  the  negroes,  under  a  pro- 
tectorate of  the  United  States,  on  the  west 
coast  of  Africa,  Mr.  Key's  sympathies  with 
the  negro  cause  were  well  and  favorably 
known;  accordingly,  the  attorney-general, 
Mr.  Wirt,  engaged  him  to  assist  in  the 
prosecution  of  the  government's  claims  in 
this  case.  In  making  the  opening  argu- 
ment, Mr.  Key,  among  other  things,  said : 

"The  Spanish  owners  show  as  proof  of  prop- 
erty, their  previous  possession;  and  the  pos- 
sessor of  goods  it  is  said,  is  to  be  presumed  the 
lawful  owner.  This  is  true  as  to  goods;  be- 
cause they  have  universally  and  necessarily  an 
owner.  But  these  are  men  of  whom  it  cannot 
be  affirmed  that  they  have  universally  and 
necessarily  an  owner." 

Opposed  to  Mr.  Key  were  Charles  J. 
Ingersoll,  of  Philadelphia,  and  John  M. 
Berrien,  of  Georgia. 

Among  the  spectators  in  court  was  Gov- 
ernor Foote,  of  Mississippi,  and  some 
years  afterwards  he  paid  a  glowing  tribute 
to  the  speech  of  Mr.  Key  in  the  following 
language : 

"On  this  occasion  he  greatly  surpassed  the 
expectations  of  his  most  admiring  friends. 
The  subject  was  particularly  suited  to  his  hab- 
its of  thought,  and  was  one  which  had  long  en- 
listed, in  a  special  manner,  the  generous  sen- 
sibilities of  his  soul.  It  seems  to  me  that  he 
said  all  that  the  case  demanded,  and  yet  no 


THE  LAWYER  37 

more  than  was  needful  to  be  said;  and  he 
closed  with  a  thrilling  and  even  an  electrifying 
picture  of  the  horrors  connected  with  the 
African  slave  trade,  which  would  have  done 
honor  to  either  a  Pitt  or  a  Wilberforce  in  their 
palmiest  days." 

However,  public  sentiment  was  not  yet 
abreast  with  his  high  and  exalted  ideas, 
and  for  reasons  based  npon  the  laws  of  na- 
tions, as  then  understood,  the  court,  in  an 
opinion  written  by  no  less  a  jurist  than  the 
great  Chief  Justice,  John  Marshall,  held, 
that  as  the  traffic  in  which  the  Spanish  ves- 
sel was  engaged  was  not  in  violation  of  the 
laws  of  Spain  the  ship  and  her  human  car- 
go must  be  restored  to  their  owners.  How- 
ever, the  force  and  eloquence  of  Mr.  Key's 
argument  was  not  without  effect.  It  made 
a  profound  impression  on  the  court,  which 
Chief  Justice  Marshall  acknowledged  at 
the  outset  of  his  opinion  in  these  words : 

"In  examining  claims  of  this  momentous  im- 
portance, claims  in  which  the  sacred  rights  of 
liberty  and  of  property  come  in  conflict  with 
each  other;  which  have  drawn  from  the  bar  a 
degree  of  talent  and  of  eloquence,  worthy  of 
the  questions  that  have  been  discussed,  this 
court  must  not  yield  to  feelings  which  might 
seduce  it  from  the  path  of  duty,  but  must  obey 
the  mandate  of  the  law." 

Some  years  after,  at  a  convention  of  the 
American  Colonization  Society,  Mr.  Key 
offered  this  resolution: 


38  FRANCIS    SCOTT   KEY 

"Resolved,  That  a  committee  be  appointed  to 
prepare  and  present  a  memorial  to  Congress, 
recommending  such  measures  to  be  taken  for 
the  protection  of  the  colonies  now  established 
on  the  African  coast,  the  promotion  of  Ameri- 
can commerce  on  that  coast,  and  the  suppres- 
sion of  the  slave  trade,  as  the  National  Legis- 
lature may  approve." 

In  speaking  in  favor  of  its  adoption,  Mr. 
Key  said : 

"Light  has  pierced  into  the  thick  darkness 
that  has  long  enveloped  that  outcast  continent, 
and  treasures  and  blessings  of  a  benignant 
Providence  are  seen  to  smile  in  all  her  plains 
and  wave  in  all  her  forests.  It  is  true  this 
fair  creation  of  God  has  been  marred  by  the 
wickedness  of  man.  A  trade  abominable  and 
detestable  beyond  all  epithets  that  can  be 
given  to  it,  at  the  very  name  of  which  the 
blood  curdles,  and  no  man  hears  it  who  'having 
human  feeling  does  not  blush,  and  hang  his 
head  to  think  himself  a  man,'  has  long  since 
desolated  Africa  and  disgraced  the  world  but 

*  *     *    the  dawning  of  a  better  day  appears 

*  *  *  the  virtue  and  benevolence  of  man 
shall  repair  the  outrages  committed  by  the  in- 
humanity of  man.  The  trade  that  has  wasted 
and  debased  Africa  shall  be  banished  by  a 
trade  that  shall  enlighten  and  civilize  her,  and 
repeople  her  solitary  places  with  her  restored 
children,  and  Africa  thus  redeemed  and  res- 
cued from  curse,  and  the  world  from  its  re- 
proach, shall  vindicate  the  ways    of    God  to 


Could  these  hopes  have  been   realized 
what  inestimable  blessings  would  not  have 


THE  LAWYER  39 

been  bestowed  upon  both  races  and  our 
country  ? 

As  well  as  a  large  practice  before  the 
courts,  Mr.  Key  enjoyed  an  equally  as 
large  and  lucrative  one  before  the  Execu- 
tive Departments  of  the  Government,  es- 
pecially the  War  Department  and  the 
General  Land  Office  before  which  he  prose- 
cuted and  represented  many  claims  for 
claimants  from  every  section  of  the  coun- 
try, including  Wisconsin,  Missouri,  Ar- 
kansas, South  Carolina,  Tennessee,  and 
Alabama.  Land  claims  on  behalf  of  both 
white  and  Indian  claimants,  pension  claims 
on  behalf  of  widows  and  orphans,  salaries 
and  allowances  due  army  and  navy  officers 
and  claims  for  provisions  furnished  the 
army  by  different  persons  at  various  times. 

Under  date  of  June  6, 1835,  W.  R.  Hallett 
writes  Mr.  Key  from  New  York  recalling 
that  he  had  the  pleasure  of  his  acquaint- 
ance at  Tuscaloosa,  Ala.,  when  he,  Hallett, 
was  a  member  of  the  Alabama  Legislature. 
The  object  of  the  letter  was  to  engage  Mr. 
Key  to  represent  him  during  his  absence 
abroad  in  some  matters  pending  at  the 
time  before  the  Land  Office.  And  again 
over  three  years  later,  under  date  of 
August  27,  1838,  Mr.  Hallett  writes  him 
from  Mobile  to  the  effect  that  on  behalf  of 
his,  Hallett 's,  friend,  Joshua  Kennedy,  he 


40  FRANCIS   SCOTT    KEY 

is  enclosing  Mr.  Key  a  check  for  one  thou- 
sand dollars,  with  a  view  of  retaining  Mr. 
Key's  services  for  Mr.  Kennedy,  saying 
that  Mr.  Kennedy  requests  him  to  attend 
to  his  business  generally,  such  as  he  may 
have  before  Congress  and  the  Supreme 
Court,  and  that  he  wishes  him  not  to  take 
any  business  against  him.  Coming  as  these 
letters  do  from  acquaintances  made  in  Ala- 
bama while  there  upon  a  delicate  and  im- 
portant mission  for  the  Government,  there 
could  not  possibly  be  a  stronger  testimo- 
nial of  the  ability  and  dignity  with  which 
he  conducted  both  the  matter  intrusted  to 
him  and  himself. 

To  consider  at  any  length  the  numerous 
cases  would  serve  no  good  purpose.  The 
papers  and  correspondence  are  very  vol- 
uminous. However,  it  may  be  mentioned 
that  one  case  he  fought  through  two  hear- 
ings before  the  Commissioner  of  the  Land 
Office,  one  hearing  before  the  Attorney 
General  of  the  United  States,  to  whom  it 
was  referred,  and  then  upon  brief  and  let- 
ter before  the  Hon.  Levi  Woodbury,  Sec- 
retary of  the  Treasury,  and  finally  upon 
bill  in  chancery  before  the  Circuit  Court  of 
the  United  States  for  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia. The  case  grew  out  of  a  contro- 
versy between  adverse  claimants  of  640 
acres  of  land  lying  between  the  Des  Moines 


THE  LAWYER  41 

and  the  Mississippi  Rivers.  Mr.  Key's 
clients,  Samuel  Marsh  and  others,  claimed 
title  to  the  land  by  purchase  from  the  half- 
breed  Sac  and  Fox  Indians  under  a  treaty 
made  between  the  United  States  and  the 
Indians  reserving  title  to  the  lands  in  the 
Indians  with  the  right  to  sell  if  they  de- 
sired. The  other  claimants  were  the  heirs 
of  Thomas  F.  Reddick,  who  claimed  title 
under  an  old  Spanish  grant  prior  to  the 
treaty  under  which  the  United  States  ac- 
quired Louisiana,  of  which  territory  the 
lands  were  a  part.  Albert  G.  Harrison  and 
Edward  Brooks  represented  the  Reddick 
heirs.  Both  sides  hotly  contested  the  cause 
and  there  appears  to  have  been  created 
some  little  feeling  between  counsel.  In  a 
letter  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Mr. 
Key,  in  speaking  of  his  opponent,  Mr.  Har- 
rison, says:  "As  to  his  patience  being 
exhausted  and  his  passion  excited,  I  have 
nothing  to  say.  This  gives  him,  I  presume, 
no  peculiar  claims  to  consideration,  though 
it  may  seem  to  excuse  in  some  measure  the 
passion  of  his  communication  in  which  he 
speaks  of  '  taking  steps  to  show  the  country 
the  great  injustice  that  has  been  done  to 
those  he  represents.'  I  should  regret  to 
think  that  he  expected  to  gain  anything  by 
such  an  intimation.  What  have  his  clients 
to  complain  off     What  course  has  been 


42  FRANCIS    SCOTT    KEY 

taken  with  them  that  has  not  been  taken 
with  all  claimants  whose  claims  are  con- 
tested by  connictory  claimants.?" 

In  an  opinion  written  entirely  in  his  own 
hand  and  signed,  Mr.  Key,  under  date  of 
February  12,  1839,  says:  "I  have  fully  ex- 
amined all  the  documents  and  title  papers 
and  evidences  in  relation  to  the  claims  of 
the  heirs  of  Thomas  F.  Reddick  to  640 
acres,  for  which  a  patent  has  been  recently 
issued  to  them,"  and,  continuing,  "I  con- 
sider the  title  to  the  half-breeds,  or  those 
who  have  purchased  from  them,  as  unques- 
tionably a  superior  title  and  unaffected  by 
this  patent — the  holders  under  the  half- 
breeds  should  compel  the  holders  of  this 
patent  to  bring  an  ejectment  on  it  in  the 
territorial  court,  or  they  may  at  once  file  a 
bill  in  equity  in  the  same  court  to  vacate 
the  patent." 

The  case  is  an  extremely  interesting  one, 
but  the  limits  of  this  little  volume  will  not 
permit  of  a  further  discussion  of  it. 

However,  enough  has  been  related  of  the 
cases  in  which  he  figured  to  give  a  clear 
insight  into  both  his  character  and  ability. 

We  find  him  courteous  and  properly  gen- 
erous in  his  dealings  with  both  his  clients 
and  the  attorneys  with  whom  he  is  asso- 
ciated or  opposed.  Fearless  of  both  men 
and  things  because  his  conscience  was  ever 


THE  LAWYER  43 

clear.  Impetuous  at  times,  perhaps,  but 
never  without  self-control.  Respectful  of 
the  opinions  of  others,  at  the  same  time  de- 
manding the  same  of  them,  and  intolerant 
when  denied.  Earnest  and  energetic  in  all 
he  undertook.  A  hard  student  and  an  ex- 
cellent man  and  lawyer. 


CHAPTER  V. 

The  Statesman  and  Diplomat. 

A  statesman,  rather  than  a  politician, 
Speaker  Reed's  definition  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding,  he  believed,  as  he  wrote 
John  Randolph,  that  a  man  had  no  more 
right  to  decline  public  office  than  to  seek 
it. 

In  a  discourse  on  education,  delivered 
February  22,  1827,  before  the  Alumni  of 
St.  John's  College,  in  St.  Ann's  Church, 
Annapolis,  he  points  out  the  duty  of  the 
state  to  its  citizens  in  a  fearless  and  most 
remarkable  manner: 

"There  are  and  ever  will  be,"  says  he,  "the 
poor  and  the  rich,  the  men  of  labor  and  the 
men  of  leisure,  and  the  state  which  neglects 
either  neglects  a  duty,  and  neglects  it  at  its 
peril  for  whichever  it  neglects  will  be  not  only 
useless  but  mischievous. 

"It  is  admitted  that  the  neglect  of  one  of 
these  classes  is  unjust  and  impolitic.  Why  is 
it  not  so  as  to  the  other?  If  it  is  improper  to 
leave  the  man  of  labor  uneducated,  *  *  * 
is  it  not  at  least  equally  so  to  leave  the  man  of 
leisure,  whose  situation  does  not  oblige  him  to 
labor,  and  who,  therefore,  will  not  labor,  to 
rust  in  sloth  or  riot  in  dissipation? 

"This  neglect  would  be  peculiarly  unwise  in 
a  government  like  ours,  luxury  is  the  vice  most 
fatal  to  republics,  and  idleness  and  want  of 
education  in  the  rich  promote  it  in  its  most 

44 


THE   STATESMAN   AND  DIPLOMAT  45 

disgusting  forms.  Nor  let  it  be  thought  that 
we  have  no  cause  to  guard  against  this  evil. 
It  is  perhaps  the  most  imminent  of  our  perils." 

In  view  of  some  recent  disclosures  of  the 
riotous  living  of  the  uneducated  sons  of 
some  of  our  rich  men,  the  prophetic  truth 
of  this  prediction  is  quite  apparent. 

A  great  lawyer,  as  we  have  seen,  with  re- 
markable oratorical  powers  in  the  forum 
of  legal  debate,  he  was  likewise,  when  occa- 
sion required,  equally  brilliant  and  con- 
vincing in  the  field  of  popular  oratory.  Al- 
though not  caring  to  mix  in  with  politics  to 
any  great  extent,  nevertheless,  when  he 
considered  the  good  of  a  worthy  cause  de- 
manded his  services  he  was  prompt  to  take 
the  stump  in  its  behalf.  In  this  way  he  is 
known  to  have  stumped,  not  only  his  native 
state,  Maryland,  but  Pennsylvania  and 
Virginia  also,  and  on  such  an  occasion  at 
Frederick,  Maryland,  in  paying  an  extem- 
poraneous tribute  to  his  country,  his  great 
mind,  grasping  the  situation  of  the  future 
as  well  as  the  present,  sounded  a  keynote 
which,  in  the  words  of  prophecy,  ring  even 
more  true  now  than  then,  a  timely  and 
mighty  warning.  These  were  his  words : 

"But,  if  ever  forgetful  of  her  past  and  pres- 
ent glory,  she  shall  cease  to  be  'the  land  of  the 
free  and  the  home  of  the  brave,'  and  become 
the   purchased   possession    of    a   company   of 


46  FRANCIS   SCOTT    KEY 

stock  jobbers  and  speculators,  if  her  people  are 
to  become  the  vassals  of  a  great  moneyed  cor- 
poration, and  to  bow  down  to  her  pensioned 
and  privileged  nobility,  if  the  patriots  who 
shall  dare  to  arraign  her  corruptions  and  de- 
nounce her  usurpations,  are  to  be  sacrificed 
upon  her  gilded  altar;  such  a  country  may 
furnish  venal  orators  and  presses  but  the  soul 
of  national  poetry  will  be  gone.  That  muse 
will  'Never  bow  the  knee  in  mammon's  fane.' 
No,  the  patriots  of  such  a  land  must  hide  their 
shame  in  her  deepest  forests,  and  her  bards 
must  hang  their  harps  upon  the  willows.  Such 
a  people,  thus  corrupted  and  degraded, 

'Living,  shall  forfeit  fair  renown, 

And,  doubly  dying  shall  go  down, 

To  the  vile  dust  from  whence  they  sprung, 

Unwept,  unhonored  and  unsung.'  " 

In  appreciation  of  the  trust  and  confi- 
dence which  can  be  reposed  in  such  sterling 
qualities,  President  Jackson  singled  him 
out  for  a  mission  to  Alabama  of  the  utmost 
delicacy  and  importance. 

In  the  early  spring  of  1832  the  United 
States  made  a  treaty  with  the  Creek  In- 
dians, under  the  terms  of  which  the  In- 
dians conditionally  ceded  to  the  United 
States  all  their  lands  east  of  the  Missis- 
sippi Kiver.  By  the  provisions  of  the  fifth 
article  of  the  treaty  there  was  imposed 
upon  the  United  States  three  duties — first, 
subject  to  the  exceptions  therein  made,  the 
removal  of  all  the  settlers  from  the  whole 
of  the  ceded  territory;  second,  the  survey 


THE   STATESMAN   AND  DIPLOMAT  47 

of  the  country  and  location  of  the  Indian 
reservations  therein ;  third,  for  a  period  of 
five  years  from  the  ratification  of  the 
treaty  the  removal  of  all  persons  found 
upon  the  reservations  so  located. 

The  manner  of  removal  the  government 
found  in  an  Act  of  Congress,  approved 
March  3,  1807,  entitled  "An  Act  to  prevent 
settlements  being  made  on  lands  ceded  to 
the  United  States,  until  authorized  by 
law."  The  Act  provided  that  intruders 
upon  the  public  lands  should  be  removed 
by  the  United  States  Marshal,  aided  by  the 
military,  if  necessary,  acting  under  the  or- 
ders of  the  President. 

The  tract  ceded  by  the  Creek  Treaty 
comprised  nine  southern  counties  of  the 
State  of  Alabama  and  contained,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  Indians,  a  population  of  nearly 
three  thousand  white  persons,  emigrants 
from  North  and  South  Carolina,  Georgia, 
Tennessee,  and  Kentucky,  as  well  as  from 
other  parts  of  Alabama. 

Each  county  had  its  full  quota  of  state 
officials;  and  judges,  magistrates,  sheriffs, 
notaries  public  and  other  officers  were  ap- 
pointed from  among  the  settlers.  All  the 
necessary  and  usual  tribunals  for  the  ad- 
ministration of  justice  and  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  peace  were  established  and  law 
and  order  prevailed. 


48  FRANCIS    SCOTT    KEY 

Such  was  the  situation  during  the  sum- 
mer and  early  fall  of  1833  when  the  United 
States  Marshal  for  the  southern  district  of 
Alabama,  acting  upon  instructions  from 
the  President,  undertook  the  herculean 
task  of  expelling  an  entire  community  pop- 
ulated by  representatives  of  a  thrifty  and 
determined  race  that  so  dearly  loves  the 
sway  of  empire  that  it  has  never  yet  been 
known  to  yield  dominion,  once  acquired. 

Besides,  as  is  the  way  with  the  pioneer 
settler,  most,  if  not  all,  had  exchanged 
their  means  of  transportation  for  imple- 
ments of  husbandry  and  were  without  the 
means  to  remove.  Fairly  prosperous,  con- 
tented and  happy,  maintaining  themselves 
and  their  families  by  the  tillage  of  the  soil, 
as  a  whole  they  disturbed  no  one  and  were 
quick  to  resent  their  being  disturbed. 

Furthermore,  the  powers  of  the  general 
government  not  being  as  generally  well 
known  and  understood  then  as  now,  they 
were  very  much  inclined  to  dispute  the 
right  of  the  United  States  to  disturb  them. 

In  their  rights,  as  they  understood  them, 
they  were,  in  the  main,  supported  by  the 
Governor  of  Alabama,  the  Honorable  John 
Gayle,  who,  in  a  lengthy  letter  to  the  Secre- 
tary of  "War,  objected  to  the  employment 
of  the  military  force  to  remove  the  settlers, 
and  without  questioning  the  constitution- 


THE   STATESMAN  AND  DIPLOMAT  49 

ality  of  the  Act  of  Congress  under  which 
the  Marshal,  aided  by  the  military,  was  en- 
deavoring to  enforce  the  stipulations  of  the 
Creek  Treaty,  he  argued  that  Congress  in 
passing  the  act  did  not  contemplate  a  case 
in  which  the  ceded  territory  was  situated 
within  the  jurisdictional  limits  of  a  state 
over  which  the  administration  of  state 
laws  prevailed  and  within  which  were  es- 
tablished her  courts  of  justice  and  other 
tribunals  for  the  government  of  the  people. 

That  the  enforcement  of  the  President's 
orders,  carrying  with  it,  as  it  necessarily 
did,  the  expulsion  of  all  the  settlers  with- 
out discrimination  would  deprive  the  state 
of  all  means  of  enforcing  its  laws  within 
the  territory,  thereby  rendering  the  admin- 
istration of  justice  and  the  suppression  of 
crime  impossible. 

Furthermore,  the  treaty  did  not  contem- 
plate the  removal  of  the  settlers  who  had 
not  wronged  the  Indians  and  who  in  set- 
tling upon  the  land  solely  for  the  purpose 
of  cultivation  had  no  intention  of  claiming 
title  thereto. 

In  reply,  under  date  of  October  22,  1833,' 
the  Secretary  wrote  the  Governor  that  the 
right  of  the  state  to  extend  its  jurisdiction 
over  the  ceded  district  was  not  questioned, 
but  the  ownership  of  land  and  jurisdiction 
over  it  were  distinct  questions. 


50  FKANCIS   SCOTT    KEY 

The  United  States  in  this  instance,  he 
said,  was  a  great  land  holder,  possessing 
under  the  Constitution  the  right  to  make 
"All  needful  rules  and  regulations  con- 
cerning their  territory  and  property, ' '  and 
that  it  had  made  a  regulation  by  which  in- 
truders on  government  lands  should  be  re- 
moved, which  regulation,  in  the  employ- 
ment of  the  military  force,  when  necessary, 
acting  under  orders  of  the  President,  was 
but  repelling  force  with  force  and  exercis- 
ing no  more  stringent  measures  than  were 
conceded  to  an  individual  under  like  cir- 
cumstances, and  it  could  not  be  supposed 
the  government  was  less  secure  in  its 
rights. 

He  met  the  Governor's  objection  that  the 
enforcement  of  the  President's  orders  de- 
prived the  state  of  the  means  of  maintain- 
ing law  and  order  in  a  large  part  of  its  do- 
main with  the  suggestion  that  until  the  lo- 
cations could  be  made  under  the  treaty  it 
would  not  be  impracticable  to  attach  the 
whole  of  the  ceded  territory  to  one  or  more 
of  the  organized  counties  of  the  state  where 
the  public  lands  had  been  sold,  "thus  pro- 
viding for  the  complete  exercise  of  both 
civil  and  criminal  jurisdiction,  without  in- 
terfering with  the  property  of  the  United 
States.' ' 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  DIPLOMAT  51 

The  Honorable  Clement  C.  Clay,  then  a 
representative  in  Congress  from  Alabama, 
in  a  letter  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  pointed 
out  a  distinction  between  the  case  of  set- 
tlers occupying  public  lands  with  the  pre- 
sumed acquiescence  of  the  government  and 
a  mere  trespasser,  the  former,  he  said, 
could  not  be  dealt  with  and  treated  as  a 
wrongdoer. 

A  fierce  controversy  ensued  resulting  in 
open  resistance  to  the  Marshal,  and  upon 
the  United  States  troops,  under  command 
of  Major  James  L.  Mcintosh,  stationed  at 
Fort  Mitchell,  Alabama,  being  ordered  to 
assist  in  the  removal  of  the  settlers,  a  riot 
resulted.  Several  towns  were  burned  and 
a  settler  named  Hardeman  Owen,  was  shot 
and  killed  by  a  soldier.  The  entire  frontier 
was  quickly  in  a  terrible  state  of  excite- 
ment. 

Immediately  indictments  were  found 
against  the  Deputy  Marshal,  Austelle, 
Lieutenant  David  Manning,  and  three  pri- 
vates, charging  them  with  the  murder  of 
Owens,  but  upon  the  sheriff  attempting  to 
execute  the  warrants  and  arrest  the  sol- 
diers, Major  Mcintosh  interposed,  and  the 
warrants  were  returned  into  court  in- 
dorsed "Not  served  for  fear  of  being 
killed.,, 


52  FKANCIS    SCOTT    KEY 

An  attachment  for  contempt  of  court  is- 
sued against  Major  Mcintosh,  being  like- 
wise treated  with  contumely,  the  court  im- 
mediately requested  of  the  Governor  a 
sufficient  force  of  militia  to  secure  obe- 
dience to  the  mandates  of  the  law  and  the 
court. 

Instead  of  complying  with  this  request 
the  Governor  enclosed  all  the  papers  in  a 
letter  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  with  the 
request  that  the  President's  attention  be 
directed  to  them,  whereupon  a  truce  fol- 
lowed. 

The  situation,  however,  aroused  the 
greatest  indignation  throughout  the  entire 
country.  A  company  of  young  men  from 
New  York  State,  headed  by  J.  VanVleck 
and  N.  G.  Eosseter,  in  a  letter  to  Governor 
Gayle,  dated,  Hudson,  New  York,  Decem- 
ber 29,  1833,  volunteered  their  military 
service  to  the  cause  of  Alabama.  To  the 
Secretary  of  War  were  sent  anonymous  let- 
ters, in  which  the  writers  stated  a  Union 
man  within  the  ceded  territory  had  no  de- 
fense but  his  arms,  and  that  they  were 
willing  and  ready  to  shoulder  theirs  in  de- 
fense of  the  Constitution  and  the  laws  of 
the  United  States. 

Another  such  letter,  dated  Creek  Nation, 
December  10,  1833,  stated  that  a  General 
Woodward   was    endeavoring   to    raise   a 


THE   STATESMAN  AND  DIPLOMAT  53 

company  in  defense  of  the  intruders 
against  what  they  termed  Federal  bayo- 
nets, and  the  Deputy  Marshal  wrote  the 
Secretary  of  War  confirming  such  rumors, 
saying  he  had  been  reliably  informed  that 
the  militia  had  been  ordered  to  hold  them- 
selves in  readiness. 

On  October  31,  1833,  when  the  contro- 
versy was  at  its  height,  the  Secretary  of 
War,  by  direction  of  the  President,  ad- 
dressed a  letter  to  Mr.  Key,  informing  him 
that  it  was  the  wish  of  the  President  that 
he  repair  to  the  district  within  the  State  of 
Alabama  ceded  to  the  United  States  by  the 
Creek  Indians  and  examine  into  the  state 
of  things  arising  out  of  the  government's 
instructions  for  the  removal  of  the  in- 
truders. 

He  was  further  instructed,  immediately 
upon  his  arrival,  to  communicate  with  the 
military  officers,  the  Marshal,  Deputy  Mar- 
shal, and  the  United  States  Attorney  for 
the  Southern  District  of  Alabama,  and  in- 
form them  that  the  government  greatly  de- 
sired to  preserve  the  proper  ascendency  of 
the  civil  authority,  and  that  the  military 
officers  were  to  follow  the  directions  of  the 
Marshal,  and  both  were  to  be  governed  by 
his,  Mr.  Key's,  advice  in  everything  relat- 
ing to  the  execution  of  their  duty.  As 
broad  powers,  it  is  submitted,  as  ever  were 


54  FRANCIS   SCOTT   KEY 

given  to  a  representative  of  onr  govern- 
ment. That  he  was  to  advise  them  to  sub- 
mit to  all  legal  process  from  the  state 
courts  and  conduct  their  defense  before 
both  the  state  and  United  States  courts 
whenever  it  became  necessary. 

Should  he  deem  a  proceeding  before  a 
state  court  to  be  vexatiously  conducted  he 
was  to  remove  the  case,  if  possible,  to  the 
United  States  courts  for  determination, 
and  should  any  officer  of  the  United  States 
be  arrested  by  process  from  the  state 
courts  while  in  the  discharge  of  his  duty, 
he  was  to  apply  to  the  United  States  Dis- 
trict Judge  for  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  and 
move  for  his  discharge.  In  conclusion,  he 
was  authorized,  if  he  deemed  it  expedient, 
to  communicate  with  the  Governor  of  Ala- 
bama and  explain  his  instructions. 

Mr.  Key  arrived  at  Fort  Mitchell  on  the 
eleventh  day  of  November,  1833,  and,  as 
we  have  seen,  his  instructions  left  him  free 
to  act  as  he  thought  best.  What  evil  con- 
sequences  might  not  have  ensued  to  the 
nation  had  powers  thus  broad,  at  so  crit- 
ical a  moment,  been  entrusted  to  one  less 
capable  and  sincere  it  is  impossible  to  say. 
To  his  everlasting  fame  and  credit,  it 
should  ever  be  remembered,  he  so  con- 
scientiously and  diplomatically  handled 
the  delicate  situation  that  at  the  expiration 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  DIPLOMAT  55 

of  nineteen  days  from  the  date  of  his  ar- 
rival he  had  the  matter  so  well  in  hand  he 
was  enabled  to  report  to  the  Secretary  of 
War  that  he  believed  an  amicable  settle- 
ment could  be  effected  in  accordance  with 
the  wishes  of  the  President. 

On  December  16,  1833,  upon  the  written 
request  of  Governor  Gayle,  he  wrote  him 
the  terms  of  the  general  government,  stat- 
ing that  none  other  could  be  had. 

Briefly,  these  were  that  the  locations 
would  be  completed  by  the  fifteenth  day  of 
the  January  following,  and  that  the  lands 
lying  outside  of  the  reservations  would  be 
released  from  the  effect  of  the  orders  of 
removal,  while  those  settlers  whose  lands 
were  found  to  be  within  the  reservations 
would  be  accorded  an  option  of  purchasing 
their  lands  from  the  Indians  before  being 
required  to  remove.  If  the  state  would  ac- 
cept these  conditions  the  government 
would  suspend  the  further  enforcement  of 
its  orders  until  after  the  surveys  of  the  lo- 
cations were  made. 

A  couple  of  days  later  he  received  assur- 
ances from  the  Governor  that  the  terms 
were  satisfactory,  and  a  little  later  the  fur- 
ther assurance  that  now  that  the  state  of- 
ficials understood  the  purpose  of  the  gov- 
ernment the  legislature  would  co-operate 
in  seeing  that  justice  was  done  between  the 


56  FRANCIS    SCOTT    KEY 

settlers  and  the  Indians  by  the  enactment 
of  a  law  making  it  penal  for  any  person  to 
occupy  land  within  which  was  located  a 
reservation  without  a  title  from  the  In- 
dians. 

On  December  18,  1833,  less  than  six 
weeks,  it  can  be  seen  from  the  date  of  his 
arrival,  he  set  out  for  his  home  in  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia,  having  accomplished  the 
full  object  of  his  mission  without  the  ne- 
cessity of  asking  permission  to  concede  a 
single  point  in  the  negotiation  of  the  set- 
tlement, and  without  having  to  resort  to 
the  courts  or  other  coercive  measures. 

The  history  of  this  most  critical  compli- 
cation is  given  somewhat  in  detail,  that  the 
delicacy  and  importance  of  the  situation, 
being  better  understood,  the  great  service 
rendered  his  country  at  this  juncture  may 
be  fully  appreciated.  His  negotiations 
brought  him  frequently  a  guest  to  the  home 
of  Governor  Gayle,  and  Mrs.  Gayle,  in  her 
journal,  has  left  some  very  interesting 
glympses  of  the  social  side  of  the  visit. 
Among  other  things,  she  says:  "Francis 
Scott  Key,  the  District  Attorney  for  the 
District  of  Columbia,  is  here  at  present  for 
the  purpose  of  assisting  to  settle  the  Creek 
controversy.  He  is  very  pleasant — intelli- 
gent you  at  once  perceive.  His  counte- 
nance is  not  remarkable  when  at  rest,  but 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  DIPLOMAT  57 

as  soon  as  he  lifts  his  eyes,  usually  fixed 
upon  some  object  near  the  floor,  the  man  of 
sense,  of  fancy,  and  the  poet  is  at  once 
seen.  But  the  crowning  trait  of  his  char- 
acter, I  have  just  discovered,  he  is  a  Chris- 
tian." 

As  the  author  of  America's  national 
song,  his  fame  had  preceded  him.  The 
young  ladies  of  Tuscaloosa,  vieing  with 
each  other,  concocted  many  clever  schemes 
to  gain  for  their  albums  a  stanza  or  two  of 
original  verse  from  the  poet's  pen. 

One  of  these,  Miss  Margaret  Kornegay, 
the  niece  of  Senator  William  E.  King,  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  making  a  rhymed  request 
and  prevailed  upon  Mrs.  Gayle,  who  was  a 
clever  poet  herself,  to  write  one  for  her, 
which  Mrs.  Gayle  did  in  the  following 
lines: 

TO  MR.  F.  S.  KEY. 

"Thanks,  gentle  fairy — now  my  album  take 
And  place  it  on  his  table  ere  he  wake, 
Then  whisper,  that  a  maiden  all  unknown, 
Claims  from  the  poet's  hand  a  trifling  boon; 
Trifling  per  chance  to  him,  but  oh!  not  so 
To  her  whose  heart  has  thrilled,  long,  long  ago, 
As  his  inspiring  lays  came  to  her  ear, 
Lending  the  stranger's  name  an  interest  dear. 
A  timid  girl  may  yet  be  bold  to  admire 
The  Poet's  fervor,  and  the  Patriot's  fire; 
But  'tis  not  these — though  magical  their  power 
They  cannot  brighten  woman's  saddened  hour, 
And  she,  the  happiest,  has  saddened  hours, 


58  FKANCIS    SCOTT    KEY 

When  all  life's  pathways  are  bereft  of  flowers, 
And  her  bowed  spirit  feels,  as  felt  by  thee, 
That  to  'live  always'  on  this  earth  would  be 
For  her,  for  all,  no  happy  destiny. 
Poet  and  Patriot !  Thou  may'st  write  for  fame, 
But  by  a  tenderer  and  holier  name 
I  call  thee — Christian!  write  me  here  one  lay, 
For  me  to  read  and  treasure  when  thou  art 
away." 

The  album,  together  with  the  verse,  was 
secretly  placed  on  the  table  in  Mr.  Key's 
room. 

The  stratagem  worked  well,  and  like  be- 
got like,  which  was  evidently  expected. 
The  muse  was  awakened  in  his  breast  and 
Miss  Kornegay,  in  the  stanzas  following, 
received  the  coveted  contribution. 

"And  is  it  so?  a  thousand  miles  apart, 
Has  lay  of  mine  e'er  touched  a  gifted  heart? 
Brightened  the  eye  of  beauty?  won  her  smile? 
Rich  recompense  for  all  the  poet's  toil. 
That  fav'ring  smile,  that  brightened  eye, 
That  tells  the  heart's  warm  ecstacy, 
I  have  not  seen — I  may  not  see — 
But,  Maiden  kind!  thy  gift  shall  be 
A  more  esteemed  and  cherished  prize 
Than  fairest  smiles  or  brightest  eyes. 
And  this  rich  trophy  of  the  poet's  power 
Shall  shine  through  many  a  lone  and  distant 

hour: 
Praise  from    the    fair,  how'er    bestowed,    we 

greet ; 
In  words,   in    looks    outspeaking    words,   'tis 

sweet ; 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  DIPLOMAT  59 

But  when  it  breathes  in  bright  and  polished 

lays 
Warm    from   a    kindred    heart,    this,    this    is 

praise. 
We  are  not  strangers ;  in  our  hearts  we  own 
Chords  that  must  ever  beat  in  unison; 
The  same  touch  wakens  them;  in  all  we  see, 
Or  hear,  or  feel,  we  own  a  sympathy ; 
We  look  where  nature's  charms  in  beauty  rise, 
And  the  same  transport  glistens  in  our  eyes. 
The  joys  of  others  cheer  us,  and  we  keep 
A  ready  tear,  to  weep  with  those  who  weep. 
'Tis  this,  that  in  the  impassioned  hour, 
Gives  to  the  favored  bard  the  power, 
As  sweetly  flows  the  stream  of  song, 
To  bear  the  raptured  soul  along, 
And  make  it,  captive  to  his  will, 
With  all  his  own  emotion  thrill. 
This  is  a  tie  that  binds  us;  'tis  the  glow, 
The  'gushing  warmth'    of    heart,    that    Poet's 

know. 
We  are  not  strangers — well  thy  lines  impart 
The  patriot's  feeling  of  the  poet's  heart. 
Not  even  thy  praise  can  make  me  vainly  deem 
That  'twas  the  poet's  power,  and  not  his  theme, 
That  woke  thy  young  heart's  rapture,  when 

from  far 
His  song  of  vict'ry  caught  thy  fav'ring  ear: 
That  victory  was  thy  country's,  and  his  strain 
Was  of  that  starry  banner  that  again 
Had  waved  in  triumph  on  the  battle  plain, 
Yes,  though  Columbia's  land  be  wide, 
Though  Chesapeake's  broad  waters  glide 
Far  distant  from  the  forest  shores 
Where  Alabama's  current  roars; 
Yet  o'er  all  this  land  so  fair 
Still  waves  the  flag  of  stripe  and  star; 
Still  on  the  warrior's  banks  is  seen, 
And  shines  in  Coosa's  valley  green, 
By  Alabama's  maiden  sung 
With  patriot  heart,  and  tuneful  tongue. 


60  FRANCIS    SCOTT    KEY 

Yes,  I  have  looked  around  me  here 

And  felt  I  was  no  foreigner; 

Each  friendly  hand's  frank  offered  clasp 

Tells  me  it  is  a  brother's  grasp : 

My  own  I  deem  these  rushing  floods, 

My  own,  these  wild  and  and  waving  woods, 

And — to  a  poet,  sounds  how  dear! — 

My  own  song  sweetly  chanted  here. 

The  joy  with  which  these  scenes  I  view 

Tells  me  this  is  my  country  too ; 

These  sunny  plains  I  freely  roam; 

I  am  no  outcast  from  a  home, 

No  wanderer  on  a  foreign  strand, 

'This  is  my  own,  my  native  land.' 

We  are  not  strangers:  still  another  tie 
Binds  us  more  closely,  more  enduringly; 
The  Poet's  heart,  though  time  his  verse  may 

save, 
Must  chill  with  age,  and  perish  in  the  grave. 
The  Patriot  too,  must  close  his  watchful  eye 
Upon  the  land  he  loves ;  his  latest  sigh 
All  he  has  left  to  give  it,  ere  he  die. 
But  when  the  Christian  faith  in  power  hath 

spoke 
To  the  bowed  heart,  and  the  world's  spell  is 

broke, 
That  heart  transformed,  a  never-dying  flame 
Warms  with  new  energy,  above  the  claim 
Of  death  t'  extinguish ; — oh !  if  we  have  felt 
This  holy  influence,  and  have  humbly  knelt, 
In  penitence,  for  pardon ;  sought  and  found 
Peace  for  each  trouble,  balm  for  every  wound ; 
For  us,  if  Faith  this  work  of  love  hath  done, 
Not  alike  only  are  our  hearts — they're  one; 
Our  joys  and    sorrows,  hopes    and  fears,  the 

same — 
One  path  our  course,  one  object  »11  our  aim ; 
Though  sundered    here,  one  home    at    last  is 

given, 
Strangers  to  earth,  and  fellow  heirs  of  Heaven. 


THE   STATESMAN   AND  DIPLOMAT  61 

Yes!  I  will  bear  thy  plausive  strain  afar, 
A  light  to  shine  upon  the  clouds  of  care, 
A  flower  to  cheer  me  in  life's  thorny  ways, 
And  I  will  think  of  her  whose  fav'ring  lays 
Kind  greeting  gave,  and  in  the  heart's  best  hour 
For  thee  its  warmest  wishes  it  shall  pour. 

And  may  I  hope,  when  this  fair  volume  brings 
Some  thought  of  him  who  tried  to  wake  the 

strings 
Of  his  forgotten  lyre,  at  thy  command — 
Command  that  warmed  his  heart,  and  nerved 

his  hand — 
Thou  wilt  for  one,  who  in  the  world's  wild 

strife 
Is  doomed  to  mingle  in  the  storms  of  life. 
Give  him  the  blessing  of  a  Christian's  care, 
And  raise  in  his  defence  the  shield  of  prayer." 


CHAPTER  VI. 

The  Star  Spangled  Banner* 

Having  wantonly  destroyed  the  Ameri- 
can Capital,  "the  seat  of  Yankee  Liberty," 
as  Cockburn  termed  it,  the  British,  fearing 
that  the  American  troops,  reinforced  from 
the  surrounding  country,  would  return 
during  the  night  to  vindicate  their  wrongs 
and  punish  the  outrages,  under  cover  of 
darkness,  the  same  evening,  leaving  their 
campfires  burning  to  conceal  their  move- 
ments, made  good  their  retreat  to  their 
ships  in  the  Patuxent.  Numerous  strag- 
glers from  their  ranks  now  pillaged  the  in- 
habitants of  the  towns  and  farms  of  the 
country  through  which  the  retreating  army 
passed. 

At  Upper  Marlborough,  a  town  situated 
about  sixteen  miles  from  Washington  on 
the  road  leading  to  Benedict,  especially 
noted  in  that  day  for  the  refinement  and 
culture  of  its  people,  lived  Dr.  William 
Beans,  a  highly  respected  citizen  and 
prominent  physician. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  succeeding  day, 
after  the  so-called  battle  of  Bladensburg, 


*The  complete  verse  is  to  be  found  in  the  Appendix 
62 


THE    STAR     SPANGLED     BANNER 
Another  View 


THE   STAR   SPANGLED   BANNER  63 

the  Doctor  was  entertaining  several 
friends,  among  them  Dr.  William  Hill  and 
Mr.  Philip  Weems,  at  the  spring  house  in 
the  garden  in  the  rear  of  his  residence, 
when  a  party  of  these  marauding  strag- 
glers, dusty,  tired  and  greatly  belated, 
having  been  caught  and  drenched  in  a  ter- 
rific wind  and  rain  storm,  reported  to  have 
been  the  severest  experienced  in  years, 
came  into  the  Doctor's  garden  and  intrud- 
ed themselves  upon  him  and  his  little  com- 
pany. 

Elated  over  their  supposed  victory  of 
the  day  previous,  of  which  the  Doctor  and 
and  his  friends  had  heard  nothing,  they 
were  boisterous,  disorderly  and  insolent, 
and  upon  being  ordered  to  leave  the  prem- 
ises became  threatening.  Whereupon,  at 
the  instance  of  Dr.  Beans  and  his  friends, 
they  were  arrested  by  the  town  authori- 
ties and  lodged  in  the  Marlborough  jail. 
One  brawny  fellow,  however,  succeeded  in 
making  good  his  escape  during  the  night, 
regained  his  company,  and  reported  the 
arrest  in  a  most  exaggerated  manner,  stat- 
ing that  they  had  been  horribly  maltreat- 
ed; that  the  Doctor  had  tried  to  poison 
some  of  the  men,  and  that  those  still  in 
custody  were  in  peril  of  their  lives. 

Admiral  Cockburn,  vindictive  by  nature 
anyway,  and  seeing  in  the  case  a  good  op- 


64  FRANCIS    SCOTT    KEY 

portunity  for  revenge,  immediately  de- 
spatched a  squad  of  marines  to  Dr.  Beans' 
residence  with  orders  to  arrest  him.  They 
arrived  there  about  one  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  breaking  in  the  door  of  his  resi- 
dence, dragging  the  Doctor  out  of  bed, 
hardly  giving  him  time  to  dress,  and 
marched  him,  half  clad,  astride  a  bareback 
mule,  through  the  woods  to  the  British 
lines.  Here  he  was  refused  a  hearing, 
placed  in  irons  and  imprisoned  in  the  hold 
of  one  of  the  British  ships  like  a  convicted 
felon. 

The  news  of  the  arrest  and  the  rough 
treatment  of  the  Doctor  quickly  spread 
through  the  town  and  naturally  aroused 
the  greatest  indignation.  On  the  next  even- 
ing Mr.  Eichard  West  arrived  at  the  resi- 
dence of  Mr.  Key  in  Georgetown,  and 
telling  him  of  the  arrest  and  treatment  of 
his  fellow-townsman,  explained  that  he  had 
called  at  the  instance  of  the  Doctor's 
friends  in  Marlborough  to  say  that,  having 
themselves  failed  in  their  efforts  to  secure 
the  release  of  the  Doctor,  being  even  re- 
fused permission  to  see  him,  they  were 
alarmed  for  his  safety  and  thought  it  ad- 
visable for  him — Mr.  West — to  call  and 
request  Mr.  Key  to  obtain,  if  possible,  the 
sanction  of  the  Government  for  his  going 
to  the  British  Admiral,  under  a  flag  of 


THE   STAR   SPANGLED   BANNER  65 

truce,  to  intercede  for  the  Doctor's  release 
and  it  was  hoped  that  Mr.  Key  would  un- 
dertake the  mission. 

As  may  be  readily  imagined,  this  was 
not  an  easy  or  pleasant  undertaking,  but 
believing  it  to  be  his  duty,  Mr.  Key  cheer- 
fully complied.  Sending  his  family  to  his 
father's  estate  at  Pipe  Creek,  Maryland, 
he  applied  to  the  Department  of  State  for 
the  necessary  letters,  and  having  received 
them,  on  the  morning  of  the  3rd  of  Sep- 
tember, 1814,  left  his  home  to  go  to  Balti- 
more for  the  purpose  of  securing  the  co- 
operation of  Col.  John  S.  Skinner,  the 
agent  of  the  United  States  for  Parole  of 
Prisoners,  at  that  port,  afterwards  a  prom- 
inent editor  and  publisher  and  Assistant 
Postmaster-General  of  the  United  States, 
to  whom  he  carried  a  letter  from  the  De- 
partment, authorizing  him  to  aid  Mr.  Key 
in  his  efforts  to  secure  the  release  of  Dr. 
Beans.  Neither  of  them  knew  definitely 
where  to  find  the  British  fleet,  but,  suppos- 
ing it  to  be  somewhere  in  the  Chesapeake, 
they  set  sail  from  Baltimore  in  the  United 
States  cartel  ship  "Minden,"  in  search  of 
it. 

With  our  present-day  facilities  for  rapid 
travel  and  communication  we  are  apt  to 
under  estimate  the  hazards  of  such  a  jour- 
ney.   We  should  not,  therefore,  forget  that 


66  FKANCIS    SCOTT    KEY 

a  trip  from  Washington  to  Baltimore,  in 
those  days  of  stage  coach  travel  was  a 
day's  journey,  and  that  a  sail  from  Balti- 
more to  the  mouths  of  the  Patuxent  and 
Potomac  Rivers,  a  distance  of  over  one 
hundred  miles,  at  which  point  they  met  the 
British  fleet,  required  all  of  two  days  un- 
der the  most  favorable  conditions.  If  we 
presume,  therefore,  that  Mr.  Key  left  Bal- 
timore, in  company  with  Colonel  Skinner, 
on  the  morning  of  the  5th  of  September  or 
the  morning  of  the  next  day  after  leaving 
his  home  in  Washington,  he  could  not  have 
met  the  British  fleet  before  the  evening  of 
the  sixth  and  possibly  the  morning  of  the 
seventh,  depending  upon  the  winds.  His- 
tory records  that  he  returned  to  Baltimore 
with  the  fleet,  arriving  at  North  Point  on 
the  morning  of  the  tenth,  and  that  he  was 
not  permitted  to  leave  until  the  morning 
after  the  bombardment  of  Fort  McHenry, 
which  was  the  fourteenth.  It  will  be  seen, 
therefore,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  he 
and  his  party  were  prisoners  in  the  British 
fleet  for  at  least  a  week.  From  all  accounts 
this  does  not  appear  to  be  fully  realized. 
But  to  return  to  our  narrative.  Upon  meet- 
ing with  the  British  they  were  courteously 
received  by  Admiral  Cochrane,  upon  the 
British  ship  "  Surprise, '  ■  but  when  Mr. 
Key  made  known  his  mission  he  found  the 


THE   STAK   SPANGLED   BANNEK  67 

Admiral  in  no  mood  to  comply,  and  he  was 
frankly  informed  that  as  Dr.  Beans  had 
been  instrumental  in  inflicting  the  most 
atrocious  injuries  and  humiliations  upon 
the  British  troops  and  deserving  the  sever- 
est punishment,  the  British  Admiral  had 
determined  upon  hanging  him  to  the  yard 
arm  of  his  vessel. 

Exactly  how  Mr.  Key  at  length  prevailed 
upon  the  Admiral  and  succeeded  in  carry- 
ing his  point,  if  ever  related,  has  never 
been  preserved.  It  is  supposed  that  the 
many  and  warm  expressions  of  apprecia- 
tion for  the  kindnesses  and  careful  treat- 
ment shown  the  wounded  and  suffering 
British  officers  by  Dr.  Beans,  contained  in 
letters  from  these  officers  to  their  com- 
rades, which  Colonel  Skinner  now  brought 
and  delivered,  had  much  to  do  with  Mr. 
Key's  success.  However  this  may  be,  it 
is  not  unreasonable  to  believe  that  if  such 
had  been  the  sole  cause  more  would  have 
been  definitely  known  about  it.  Recollect- 
ing Mr.  Key's  strong  personality,  his  affa- 
ble manner  and  frank  sincerity,  it  is  not 
assuming  at  all  too  much  to  say  that  in  all 
probability  his  own  eloquent  and  masterful 
presentation  of  the  case,  in  which  he  used 
the  fact  of  Dr.  Beans'  kindness  to  the 
British  to  the  very  best  advantage,  as  well 
as  the  improbability,  if  not  impossibility, 


68  FKANCIS   SCOTT   KEY 

of  one  enjoying  the  esteem  and  respect  of 
his  neighbors  to  the  degree  that  the  Doctor 
did,  and,  as  Mr.  Key  now  took  occasion  to 
forcibly  point  out,  could  not  possibly  have 
been  guilty  of  the  charges  preferred 
against  him,  had  as  much,  if  not  more,  than 
all  else  to  do  with  securing  the  release  of 
the  noted  Marlborough  physician. 

Having  once  accomplished  the  object  of 
their  most  unpleasant  errand,  the  American 
party  would  gladly  have  returned  to  their 
homes.  The  Admiral,  however,  fearing 
they  had  gained,  by  their  presence  within 
his  fleet,  some  information  which  might  be 
used  to  the  detriment  of  his  purpose,  in- 
formed them  that  although  he  would  re- 
lease Dr.  Beans,  they  would  have  to  be  de- 
tained for  a  few  days  until  after  the  deter- 
mination of  an  expedition  which  he  was 
about  to  make,  assuring  them  at  most  it 
would  be  but  a  short  while.  They  accord- 
ingly remained  aboard  the  British  ship 
' '  Surprise ' '  until  the  arrival  of  the  fleet  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Patapsco  on  the  morning 
of  September  10th,  when  they  were  trans- 
ferred, under  guard  of  British  marines,  to 
their  own  vessel,  the  "Minden"  and  an- 
chored in  a  position  from  which  they  could 
witness  all  that  would  transpire,  that  their 
humiliation  might  be  the  more  complete 
from  the  victory  which  the  British  were 


THE   STAE   SPANGLED   BANNER  69 

confident  of  acquiring  over  their  country- 
men, within  a  couple  of  hours.  With  bated 
breath  and  throbbing  hearts,  unconscious 
of  the  glorious  part  their  little  expedition 
was  destined  to  play  in  the  history  of  their 
country,  the  lonely,  distressed  and  anxious 
little  party  of  patriots,  under  the  derisive 
scorn  of  their  captor's  guard,  watched  the 
landing  at  North  Point,  a  distance  of 
twelve  miles  from  the  city  of  Baltimore,  of 
nine  thousand  soldiers  and  marines  under 
the  command  of  General  Eoss,  prepara- 
tory to  an  attack  upon  their  country. 

The  activity  of  the  British  now  was 
great — such  an  army  could  not  be  landed 
and  formed  in  position  in  a  day.  In  fact, 
from  the  time  intervening  between  the 
morning  of  the  tenth,  when  the  fleet  first 
appeared  at  North  Point,  until  the  morn- 
ing of  the  thirteenth,  when  the  attack  be- 
gan, it  is  shown  three  days  were  necessary. 
During  this  time  Mr.  Key  from  the  deck 
of  his  prison  ship  had  ample  opportunity 
to  observe  the  movements  of  the  enemy 
and  reflect  upon  the  situation  and  the  prob- 
able outcome. 

The  total  rout  of  the  militia  at  Bladens- 
burg  and  the  consequent  horrors  of  the 
burning  of  Washington,  events  so  very  re- 
cent, were  fresh  in  his  mind,  and  now, 
while  watching  these  extensive  prepara- 


70  FKANCIS    SCOTT    KEY 

tions  for  a  similar  attack  on  the  principal 
city  of  his  native  state,  must  have  been  re- 
called very  vividly. 

Only  five  days  previous  he  had  been  in 
that  beautiful  and  progressive  city  whose 
doom  fate  now  seemed  rapidly  sealing.  He 
knew  the  comparative  strength  of  its  de- 
fenses, both  by  land  and  water,  and  was 
also  well  aware  that  engaged  therein  were, 
unfortunately,  no  such  trained  and  hard- 
ened veteran  soldiers  as  he  saw  landed  for 
its  attack  and  destruction.  At  best  a  small 
army  of  raw  militia,  similar  to,  and  in  fact 
partly  composed  of  that  which  had  been  so 
easily  routed  at  Bladensburg,  was  all  there 
was  to  meet  and  engage  the  intruders.  The 
boastful  remark  of  General  Ross  "that  he 
did  not  care  if  it  rained  militia,  he  would 
take  Baltimore  and  make  it  his  winter 
headquarters/ '  in  the  misgivings  of  the 
awful  moment  seemed  to  savor  more  of 
truth  than  bravado. 

Under  such  trying  circumstances  the 
most  phlegmatic  nature  must  have  been 
moved,  while  the  imagination  stands 
aghast  to  conceive  the  sensations  of  his  in- 
tensely patriotic  one.  Alternate  fear  and 
hope  spread  alarm  in  his  patriotic  breast, 
as  he  witnessed  the  landing  of  the  last  of 
the  British  troops  and  saw  them  drawn  up 


THE   STAR   SPANGLED   BANNER  71 

in  hostile  array  upon  the  shores  of  his 
country. 

The  fleet  now  closed  in  upon  the  little 
fortress,  forming  a  semi-circle  about  two 
and  a  half  miles  off  its  breastwork,  from 
which  position  of  safety  it  could  throw  its 
bombs  and  missiles  of  death  and  carnage 
without  being  within  reach  of  the  Ameri- 
can guns.  Under  different  circumstances 
the  maneuvers  would  have  been  grand  to 
witness,  but  now,  to  him  so  situated,  their 
terrors  and  horrors  cannot  be  imagined,  let 
alone  described. 

Wafted  by  a  calm  September  morning's 
breeze  came  the  booming  of  cannon  and 
the  roar  of  rapid-firing  musketry  from  the 
direction  of  the  road  leading  from  North 
Point  to  Baltimore,  heralding  the  clash  of 
arms  in  a  death  struggle  between  the  well 
trained  and  serried  ranks  of  the  British 
regulars  and  the  gallant  stand  of  a  small 
body  of  freemen  in  defense  of  their  homes 
and  firesides. 

From  the  harrowing  thoughts  of  their 
speedy  and  certain  defeat  and  destruction 
he  turned  with  faint  heart  to  the  little  fort 
crowning  the  promontory  of  \Yhetstone 
Point.  This  little  place,  although  light, 
had  some  finely  planned  batteries  mounted 
with  heavy  guns,  as  Admiral  Cockburn,  on 


72  FKANCIS   SCOTT   KEY 

a  previous  visit  had  the  pleasure  and  satis- 
faction of  learning. 

Its  garrison  of  artillery  was  under  the 
command  of  Major  George  Armistead,  U. 
S.  A.,  Judge  Joseph  Hopper  Nicholson,  the 
brother-in-law  of  Mr.  Key,  was  in  com- 
mand of  a  volunteer  battery  of  artillery, 
ranking  second  in  command  of  the  fort. 

Prompted  by  the  same  spirit  of  indis- 
cretion, vacillation  and,  it  may  even  be 
said,  cowardice,  as  was  largely  responsi- 
ble for  the  sad  fate  of  Washington,  the  Ad- 
ministration had  sent  Major  Armistead 
orders  to  surrender.  The  Major,  however, 
was  of  different  material ;  he  had  not  been 
accustomed  to  giving  up  without  a  fight, 
and  this  brave  and  gallant  officer,  risking 
the  punishment  and  disgrace  of  a  court- 
martial  as  coolly  as  he  fired  at  the  British, 
disobeyed  his  orders. 

Early  Tuesday  morning,  the  thirteenth 
of  September,  the  British,  keeping  well  out 
of  the  range  of  the  guns  of  the  fort,  began 
their  attack  with  six  bomb  and  a  few  rock- 
et vessels.  Major  Armistead,  fully  cog- 
nizant that  his  forty-two  pounders  would 
not  carry  as  far  as  the  enemy's  guns,  pa- 
tiently bided  his  time  and  waited  for  the 
British  to  come  within  range,  firing  only 
occasionally  to  let  them  know  the  fort  and 
garrison  had  not  surrendered.    The.  Brit- 


THE   STAR   SPANGLED   BANNER  73 

ish,  from  their  vantage  point  of  safety, 
pumped  their  heavy  bombs  upon  the  little 
fortress  with  such  rapidity,  it  is  said, 
"four  or  five  bombs  bursting  in  the  air  at 
once  made  a  terrific  explosion.' '  Some  of 
these  bombs  were  afterwards  found  intact 
and  weighed  from  210  to  220  pounds. 

From  six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  when 
the  attack  began,  until  three  in  the  after- 
noon, there  was  no  change  in  the  tactics  of 
the  British.  At  the  latter  hour,  however, 
either  tiring  of  their  one-sided  game  or  be- 
coming a  little  bolder,  some  few  vessels 
came  nearer  the  fort  and  within  range  of 
its  guns.  Its  brave  defenders,  now  having 
the  opportunity  for  which  they  had  re- 
served their  ammunition  and  waited  were 
not  long  in  taking  advantage  of  it.  Open- 
ing fire  with  deliberate  aim  they  literally 
hailed  shot  and  shell  upon  their  antagon- 
ists, making  it  so  hot  for  them  that  they 
were  glad  to  slip  their  cables  and  sail  away 
quicker  than  they  came,  "throwing  their 
bombs  with  an  activity  excited  by  their 
mortification,"  as  an  eye  witness  chron- 
icles. 

Again  the  fight  was  resumed  from  a  dis- 
tance where  the  British  could  throw  their 
bombs  upon  the  fort  without  getting  within 
range  of  its  guns.  As  the  afternoon  waned 
the    cool,    gentle  breeze    of    approaching 


74  FRANCIS    SCOTT    KEY 

evening  stirred  the  turbid  atmosphere  and 
catching  the  folds  of  our  flag,  then  droop- 
ing around  its  staff,  unfurled  it  from  its 
proud  position  over  the  ramparts  in  a  last 
salute  as  it  were  to  departing  day.  A  shell 
pierced  the  banner,  tearing  from  its  con- 
stellation, a  star.  Once  more  the  gentle 
winds  of  Heaven  were  kind — a  slight  tre- 
mor from  the  recoil — and  the  banner  of 
the  free  and  the  brave  again  floated  out  de- 
fiantly before  the  mouths  of  the  English 
guns,  bathed  in  the  delicate  hues  of  the 
"twilight's  last  gleaming"  as  the  shroud 
of  night  fell,  closing  from  sight  each  float- 
ing stripe  and  star. 

Unable  longer  to  discern  the  movements 
of  the  fleet,  or  see  the  flag  of  his  country, 
his  comrades,  worn  and  fatigued,  retired 
below.  Not  so  with  him,  an  instrument  in 
the  hands  of  destiny — his  sleepless  anxiety 
knew  no  rest.  In  the  regularity  of  his 
paces  upon  the  deck  were  recorded  those 
patriotic  heart  throbs  from  which  were  to 
come  the  genius  of  the  song. 

A  resultant  fortitude  from  a  most  sub- 
lime Christian  faith  alone  sustained  him 
and  sent  that  consolation  of  which  he  tells 
us  in  his  own  beautiful  words,  "the  rock- 
ets' red  glare  and  the  bombs  bursting  in 
air,  gave  proof  through  the  night  that  our 
flag  was  still* there." 


THE   STAR   SPANGLED   BANNER  75 

Between  two  and  three  o'clock  in  the 
morning  the  British,  with  one  or  two  rock- 
et and  several  bomb  vessels  manned  by 
twelve  hundred  picked  men,  attempted, 
under  cover  of  darkness,  to  slip  past  the 
fort  and  up  the  Patapsco,  hoping  to  effect 
a  landing  and  attack  the  garrison  in  the 
rear. 

Succeeding  in  evading  the  guns  of  the 
fort,  but  unmindful  of  Fort  Covington,  un- 
der whose  batteries  they  next  came,  their 
enthusiasm  over  the  supposed  success  of 
the  venture,  gave  way  in  a  derisive  cheer, 
which,  born  by  the  damp  night  air  to  our 
small  party  of  Americans  on  the  "Mai- 
den," must  have  chilled  the  blood  in  their 
veins  and  pierced  their  patriotic  hearts 
like  a  dagger. 

Fort  Covington,  the  lazaretto  and  the 
American  barges  in  the  river  now  simul- 
taneously poured  a  galling  fire  upon  the 
unprotected  enemy,  raking  them  fore  and 
aft,  in  horrible  slaughter.  Disappointed 
and  disheartened,  many  wounded  and  dy- 
ing, they  endeavored  to  regain  their  ships, 
which  came  closer  to  the  fortifications  in 
an  endeavor  to  protect  the  retreat.  A  fierce 
battle  ensued,  Fort  McHenry  opened  the 
full  force  of  all  her  batteries  upon  them 
as  they  repassed,  and  the  fleet  responding 
with  entire  broadsides  made  an  explosion 


76  FKANCIS    SCOTT    KEY 

so  terriffic  that  it  seemed  as  though  Mother 
Earth  had  opened  and  was  vomiting  shot 
and  shell  in  a  sheet  of  fire  and  brimstone. 
The  heavens  aglow  were  a  seething  sea  of 
flame,  and  the  waters  of  the  harbor,  lashed 
into  an  angry  sea  by  the  vibrations  the 
"Minden"  rode  and  tossed  as  though  in  a 
tempest.  It  is  recorded  that  the  houses  in 
the  city  of  Baltimore,  two  miles  distant, 
were  shaken  to  their  foundations.  Above 
the  tempestuous  roar  intermingled  with  its 
hubbub  and  confusion  were  heard  the 
shrieks  and  groans  of  the  dying  and 
wounded.  But  alas!  they  were  from  the 
direction  of  the  fort.  "What  did  it  mean? 
For  over  an  hour  the  pandemonium 
reigned.  Suddenly  it  ceased — all  was 
quiet,  not  a  shot  fired  or  sound  heard,  a 
deathlike  stillness  prevailed,  as  the  dark- 
ness of  night  resumed  its  sway.  The  aw- 
ful stillness  and  suspense  was  unbearable. 
"The  hurley  burley  o'er  and  done" — the 
battle  both  "lost  and  won,"  but  how  Mr. 
Key  did  not  know,  or  had  he  any  means  of 
knowing.  Was  the  last  terrific  display  a 
gallant  final  effort  of  his  countrymen  be- 
fore surrender?  And  were  those  cries  and 
shrieks  the  groans  of  his  fellow  American 
patriots,  whose  hearts,  like  his  own,  lay 
bleeding?  0  Mind  of  Man!  dubbed  thou 
"the  mistress  of  the  world,"    can    your 


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FAC     SIMILE    OF    THE    ORIGINAL     DRAFT    OF    THE    SONG 


THE    STAR   SPANGLED   BANNER  77 

vainest  thoughts  conceive,  or  your  imagi- 
nation picture,  the  fearful  anxiety  and 
agony  of  this  last  supreme  moment  of  ter- 
ror? 

Scarcely  thirty-five  years  of  age,  may  it 
not  be  safely  said  to  his  fair  brow  came  its 
first  furrow;  to  his  rich  suit  of  waving 
chestnut  hair,  its  first  strains  of  silver. 
Who  can  say?  A  physical  frame  taxed  to 
the  limit  of  its  strength  by  long  and  anx- 
ious vigil ;  nerves  shattered  and  unstrung ; 
a  patriotic  heart,  overcome  by  emotion, 
fearing  to  hope,  could  sustain  him  no  lon- 
ger— exhausted  he  sank  upon  his  pure 
Christian  soul,  like  a  Eock  of  Ages,  for 
shelter  and  succor,  murmuring  to  his  God 
the  prayer,  0  Lord,  God  of  Hosts!  "The 
power  that  has  made,  preserve  us  a  na- 
tion. ' '  And  thus  in  sweet  communion  with 
his  God  we  leave  him  for  an  hour  or  more, 
until  the  break  of  day,  for  his  proud  spirit 
and  genuine  modesty  never  disclosed,  even 
to  his  closest  friends,  anything  of  the  awful 
sensations  which  he  experienced  and  suf- 
fered during  this  time. 

Such  of  them  as  he  cared  to  give  the 
world  are  found  only  in  the  lines  of  his 
hymn,  ' '  The  Star  Spangled  Banner. ' ' 

Not  even  to  his  friend,  John  Randolph 
of  Roanoke,  to  whom  he  wrote  shortly 
thereafter,  does  he  mention  them  or  even 


78  FRANCIS   SCOTT    KEY 

the  fact  of  his  having  written  the  song.    All 
he  says  of  his  mission  is  as  follows: 

"You  will  be  surprised  to  hear  that  I  have 
since  then  spent  eleven  days  in  the  British 
Fleet.  I  went  with  a  flag  to  endeavor  to  save 
poor  old  Dr.  Beans  a  voyage  to  Halifax,  in 
which  we  fortunately  succeeded.  They  detained 
us  until  after  their  attack  on  Baltimore,  and 
you  may  imagine  what  a  state  of  anxiety  I  en- 
dured. Sometimes  when  I  remembered  it  was 
there  the  declaration  of  this  abominable  war 
was  received  with  public  rejoicings.  I  could 
not  feel  a  hope  that  they  would  escape  and 
again  when  I  thought  of  the  many  faithful 
whose  piety  lessens  that  lump  of  wickedness  I 
could  hardly  feel  a  fear. 

aTo  make  my  feelings  still  more  acute,  the 
admiral  had  intimated  his  fears  that  the  town 
must  be  burned  and  I  was  sure  that  if  taken  it 
would  have  been  given  up  to  plunder.  I  have 
reason  to  believe  that  such  a  promise  was 
given  to  their  soldiers.  It  was  filled  with 
women  and  children.  I  hope  I  shall  never  cease 
to  feel  the  warmest  gratitude  when  I  think  of 
this  most  merciful  deliverance.  It  seems  to 
have  given  me  a  higher  idea  of  the  'forbearance, 
long  suffering  and  tender  mercy'  of  God,  than 
I  had  ever  before  conceived. 

Never  was  a  man  more  disappointed  in  his 
expectations  than  I  have  been  as  to  the  char- 
acter of  British  officers.  With  some  exceptions 
they  appeared  to  be  illiberal,  ignorant  and  vul- 
gar and  seem  filled  with  a  spirit  of  malignity 
against  everything  American.  Perhaps,  how- 
ever, I  saw  them  in  unfavorable  circum- 
stances." 

Shortly  after  the  attempt  oi  the  British 
to  slip  past  the  fort,  which  resulted  so  dis- 


THE   STAR   SPANGLED   BANNER  79 

astrously  to  their  forces  and  caused  the 
last  terrible  grand  spectacular  display, 
word  had  reached  the  flagship  of  the  fail- 
ure of  their  land  forces  and  the  death  of 
General  Ross.  On  board  which,  the  "Min- 
den,"  or  the  flagship,  greater  depression 
was  felt,  is  a  question  too  difficult  to  deter- 
mine.   Such  is  war ! 

With  the  first  approach  of  the  gray 
streaks  of  dawn,  Mr.  Key  turned  his  weary 
and  bloodshot  eyes  to  the  direction  of  the 
fort  and  its  flag,  but  the  darkness  had  giv- 
en place  to  a  heavy  fog  of  smoke  and  mist 
which  now  enveloped  the  harbor  and  hung 
close  down  to  the  surface  of  the  water. 

Some  time  must  yet  elapse  before  any- 
thing definite  might  be  ascertained,  or  the 
object  of  his  aching  heart's  desire  dis- 
cerned. At  last  it  came.  A  bright  streak 
of  gold  mingled  with  crimson  shot  athwart 
the  eastern  sky,  followed  by  another  and 
still  another,  as  the  morning  sun  rose  in 
the  fullness  of  her  glory,  lifting  "the  mists 
of  the  deep,"  crowning  a  "Heaven-blest 
land"  with  a  new  victory  and  grandeur. 

Through  a  vista  in  the  smoke  and  vapor 
could  now  be  dimly  seen  the  flag  of  his 
country.  As  it  caught  "The  gleam  of  the 
morning's  first  beam,"  and,  "in  full  glory 
reflected  shone  in  the  stream"  his  proud 
and  patriotic  heart  knew  no  bounds;  the 


80  FKANCIS   SCOTT   KEY 

wounds  inflicted  "by  the  battle's  confus- 
ion' '  were  healed  instantly  as  if  by  magic; 
a  new  life  sprang  into  every  fiber,  and  his 
pent-up  emotions  burst  forth  with  an  in- 
spiration in  a  song  of  praise,  victory  and 
thanksgiving  as  he  exclaimed : 

"'Tis  the  Star  Spangled  Banner,  Oh !  long  may 

it  wave, 
O'er  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of  the 

brave." 

As  the  morning's  sun  arose,  vanquishing 
the  darkness  and  gloom;  lifting  the  fog 
and  smoke  and  disclosing  his  country's 
flag,  victorious,  bathed  in  the  delicate  hues 
of  morn,  only  an  inspiration  caught  from 
such  a  sight  can  conceive  or  describe,  and 
so  only  in  the  words  of  his  song  can  be 
found  the  description. 

The  first  draft  of  the  words  were  emo- 
tionally scribbled  upon  the  back  of  a  let- 
ter which  he  carried  in  his  pocket  and  of 
which  he  made  use  to  dot  down  some  mem- 
oranda of  his  thoughts  and  sentiments. 

Shortly  after  sunrise  word  was  received 
from  the  British  Admiral  that  the  attack 
had  failed  and  that  Mr.  Key  and  his  party 
were  at  liberty  to  go  at  pleasure.  They 
proceeded  to  Baltimore,  and  on  the  even- 
ing of  the  same  day  he  wrote  out  the  first 
complete  draft  of  the  song.  The  next 
morning,  in  calling  upon  Judge  Nicholson, 


SAMUEL     SANDS 
Who  first  set  the  song  in  type 


THE   STAR   SPANGLED   BANNER  81 

Mr.  Key  related  how  he,  in  company  with 
Colonel  Skinner  and  Dr.  Beans,  had  wit- 
nessed the  bombardment  of  the  fort  from 
the  deck  of  the  "Minden,"  telling  the 
Judge  some  little  of  his  trying  experience, 
and  stating  that  on  the  morning  after  the 
battle,  upon  seeing  the  flag  still  waving,  he 
had  written  a  song,  the  draft  of  which  he 
then  drew  from  his  pocket  and  showed  the 
Judge,  who  was  so  impressed  with  its  spir- 
it and  beauty  that  he  insisted  upon  having 
it  published  immediately.  He  therefore 
took  it  to  the  printing  office  of  Captain 
Benjamin  Edes,  on  North  Street,  near  the 
corner  of  Baltimore,  but  the  Captain  not 
having  returned  from  duty  with  the  Twen- 
ty-seventh Maryland  Kegiment,  his  office 
was  closed,  and  Judge  Nicholson  proceeded 
to  the  newspaper  office  of  the  Baltimore 
American  and  Commercial  Daily  Adver- 
tiser, where  the  words  were  set  in  type  by 
Samuel  Sands,  an  apprentice  at  the  time, 
"printer's  devil,' '  but  who  in  later  life  be- 
came associated  with  Colonel  Skinner  in 
editing  and  publishing  the  American 
Farmer.  Mr.  Sands'  own  version  of  the 
part  he  took  in  first  setting  the  words  in 
type  is  given  in  a  letter  written  by  him  to 
General  Brantz  on  January  1,  1877.  The 
letter  is  a  very  long  one,  and  only  a  por- 
tion is  here  given. 


82 


FRANCIS    SCOTT    KEY 


"I  will  therefore  premise  that  after  the  bat- 
tle of  North  Point  and  the  ceasing  of  the  bom- 
bardment of  Fort  McHenry,  the  British  forces 
retired  from  our  shores,  in  their  boats,  to  1he 
fleet  lying  in  the  river,  and  then  proceeded 
down  the  bay,  leaving  our  city  and  its  sur- 
roundings free  once  more  from  the  dangers  of 
their  incursions.  Although  there  were  a  num- 
ber of  regiments  of  militia  hastily  drawn  from 
the  counties  of  our  own  state  as  also  from  the 
neighboring  states  of  Pennsylvania  and  Vir- 
ginia, yet  the  force  which  was  sent  to  the  front 
to  meet  General  Ross  and  his  invading  army, 
which  had  affected  a  landing  at  North  Point, 
consisted  almost  entirely  of  the  Baltimore  city 
regiments,  who  on  the  occasion  met  the  veter- 
ans of  Wellington's  army  and  presented  their 
bodies  as  a  bulwark  to  the  first  advance  of  the 
invaders,  a  number  of  them  giving  their  lives 
to  the  defense  of  our  fair  city  and  for  the  pro- 
tection of  their  wives  and  daughters  from  the 
consequences  of  the  'foe's  desolation.'  These 
citizen  soldiers,  when  the  enemy  had  disap- 
peared from  our  vicinity  took  up  their  quarters 
in  and  adjacent  to  the  intrenchments  and  bat- 
teries erected  for  our  defense  upon  Louden- 
slagers  hill,  just  eastward  of  the  city  borders, 
where  they  remained  for  some  short  time  until 
all  apprehension  of  the  return  of  the  British 
fleet  had  been  dissipated.  Whilst  thus  located, 
Mr.  Thos.  Murphy,  one  of  the  members  of  Capt. 
Aisquith's  First  Baltimore  Sharp  Shooters,  ob- 
tained leave  of  absence,  and  returned  to  the 
city,  and  again  opened  the  counting  room  of 
the  American  which  with  all  the  other  news- 
papers of  the  day,  had  suspended  publication 
for  the  time  being,  the  editors,  journeymen  and 
apprentices  able  to  bear  arms,  being  in  the 
military  service.  According  tc  the  best  of  my 
recollection  I  was  the  only  one  belonging  to  the 


THE   STAR   SPANGLED   BANNER  83 

printing  office  that  was  left  who  was  not  in  the 
military  service,  being  then  but  fourteen  years 
of  age,  and  not  capable  of  bearing  arms  I 
whiled  away  the  time  during  the  suspense  of 
the  invasion  in  looking  after  the  office  and  in 
occasional  visits  to  the  'boys'  at  the  entrench- 
ments. After  Mr.  Murphy's  return,  the  manu- 
script copy  of  the  song  was  brought  to  the  of- 
fice— I  always  had  the  impression  that  Mr. 
John  S.  Skinner  brought  it,  but  I  never  so 
stated  it  as  a  fact,  for  I  had  no  proof  thereof, 
but  it  was  a  mere  idea  and  I  never  considered 
it  of  sufficient  importance  to  make  inquiry 
upon  the  subject  from  my  old  and  valued 
friend,  Mr.  Murphy,  or  from  Mr.  Skinner,  who 
was  subsequently  engaged  with  me  in  the  edit- 
ing of  my  farm  journal  and  who  was  the  found- 
er thereof — but  the  letter  of  Judge  Taney  al- 
luded to  above,  proves  that  I  was  mistaken  in 
that  matter — Mr.  Skinner  was  a  cartel  agent 
for  our  government  in  its  intercourse  with  the 
British  fleet  in  our  Bay  and  I  took  up  the  im- 
pression that  he  on  his  return  from  the  fleet 
had  brought  from  Mr.  Key  the  manuscript,  but 
Judge  Taney  gives  the  particulars  of  the  exam- 
ination and  copying  of  the  song,  in  this  city, 
by  Judge  Nicholson  and  Mr.  Key  and  remarks 
that  one  of  these  gentlemen  took  it  to  the 
printers. 

When  it  was  brought  up  to  the  printing  of- 
fice my  impression  is,  and  ever  has  been,  that 
I  was  the  only  one  of  those  belonging  to  the  es- 
tablishment who  was  on  hand,  and  that  it  was 
put  in  type  and  what  the  printers  call  'galley 
proofs'  were  struck  off  previous  to  the  renewal 
of  the  publication  of  this  paper,  and  it  may  be 
and  probably  was  the  case  that  from  one  of 
these  proof  slips,  handbills  were  printed  and 
circulated  through  the  city. 

This  is  simply  all  the  part  which  I  had  in 
the  transaction  alluded  to.    Although  the  song 


84  FKANCIS   SCOTT    KEY 

obtained  celebrity  in  a  little  time  after  it  was 
first  presented  to  the  world,  yet  the  unimport- 
ant and  very  secondary  consideration  as  to 
who  first  printed  and  issued  it  was  never 
mooted,  for  probably  fifty  years  thereafter, 
when  I  was  called  upon  by  sundry  persons  to 
give  my  recollections  upon  the  subject  which 
called  forth  the  responses  in  the  several  publi- 
cations alluded  to  already. 

At  the  time  I  put  the  song  in  type,  I  was  an 
apprentice  in  the  office  of  the  Baltimore  Ameri- 
can and  lived  in  the  family  of  Mr.  Murphy — 
and  as  this  may  probably  be  the  last  time  I 
will  be  called  upon  again  to  publicly  allude  to 
the  transactions  detailed,  I  must  ask  to  be 
permitted  here  to  bear  my  tribute  to  the  worth 
and  excellency  of  character  of  my  old  friend. 
He  was,  in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  term,  a 
gentleman  of  the  most  estimable  character  and 
was  ever  held  in  the  highest  esteem  by  all  who 
enjoyed  his  acquaintance.  He  was  with  the 
rest  of  the  hands  of  the  office  and  was  at  the 
front  in  that  gallant  corps  of  riflemen,  the 
Sharp  Shooters,  which  was  pushed  forward  in 
the  advance  of  our  little  army  to  reconnoiter, 
and  it  was  to  two  of  them  (Wills  and  Mc- 
Comas)  the  death  of  General  Ross  was  at- 
tributed, the  smoke  of  their  guns  indicated 
whence  the  fatal  bullets  came  which  killed  the 
gallant  general  and  a  volley  from  the  escort  of 
Ross  was  poured  into  the  copse  of  wood 
whence  the  firing  proceeded  which  caused  these 
two  youthful  heroes  to  bite  the  dust.  Their 
fellow  citizens  afterwards  contributed  a  sum 
of  money  to  erect  a  monument  to  their  memory 
and  a  lot  in  the  eastern  section  of  the  city  was 
appropriated  for  the  purpose." 
Yours  with  respect, 

(Signed)  Saml.  Sands. 


THE   STAR   SPANGLED   BANNEE  85 

Copies  of  the  song  were  struck  off  in 
handbill  form,  and  promiscuously  distrib- 
uted on  the  street.  Catching  with  popular 
favor  like  prairie  fire  it  spread  in  every 
direction,  was  read  and  discussed,  until,  in 
less  than  an  hour,  the  news  was  all  over  the 
city. 

Picked  up  by  a  crowd  of  soldiers  assem- 
bled, some  accounts  put  it  about  Captain 
McCauley's  tavern,  next  to  the  Holiday- 
Street  Theater,  others  have  it  around  their 
tents  on  the  outskirts  of  the  city,  Ferdi- 
nand Durang,  a  musician,  adapted  the 
words  to  the  old  tune  of  "Anacreon  in 
Heaven, ' '  and,  mounting  a  chair,  rendered 
it  in  fine  style. 

On  the  evening  of  the  same  day  it  was 
again  rendered  upon  the  stage  of  the  Holi- 
day-Street Theater  by  an  actress,  and  the 
theater  is  said  to  have  gained  thereby  a 
national  reputation.  In  about  a  fortnight 
it  had  reached  New  Orleans  and  was  pub- 
licly played  by  a  military  band,  and 
shortly  thereafter  was  heard  in  nearly,  if 
not  all,  the  principal  cities  and  towns 
throughout  the  country. 

While  inspiring  and  thrilling  in  every 
line,  unlike  most  national  airs,  America's 
National  Anthem  is  devoid  of  any  foolish 
sentimental  loyalty  or  passionate  appeal  to 
arms,  but  breathing  a  pure  religious  senti- 


86  FRANCIS    SCOTT  XEY 

ment  of  praise  and  thanksgiving  for  the 
victory  of  the  hour,  it  teaches  and  inspires 
in  generations  to  come  a  lesson  of  emula- 
tion for  truly  brave  and  gallant  deeds 
whenever  "freemen  may  stand  between 
their  loved  homes  and  the  war's  desola- 
tion." 

Let  it  be  added  that  the  original  flag  was 
made  by  Mrs.  Mary  Pinkersgill,  assisted  by 
her  daughter,  Mrs.  Caroline  T.  Purdy. 
Owing  to  its  immense  size,  Mrs.  Purdy,  in 
a  letter,  states  that  permission  to  use  the 
floor  of  the  malt  house  of  Claggitt's  Brew- 
ery in  Baltimore  was  asked  by  her  mother 
and  obtained,  and  says,  Mrs.  Purdy,  "I 
remember  seeing  my  mother  down  on  the 
floor  placing  the  stars."  Whatever  our 
friends,  the  prohibitionists,  may  think  upon 
learning  this,  let  them  remember  that  even 
they  for  once  must  admit  the  floor  of  a 
brewery  was  turned  to  good  account.  Mrs. 
Purdy  also  states  that  "after  the  comple- 
tion of  the  flag  she  and  her  mother  super- 
intended the  topping  of  it,  having  it  fast- 
ened in  the  most  secure  manner  to  prevent 
its  being  torn  away  by  balls. ' ' 

The  accuracy  of  the  version  herein  given 
of  the  arrest  of  Dr.  Beans,  as  well  as  the 
statement  that  Samuel  Sands  first  set  the 
words  of  the  Star  Spanglend  Banner  in 
type,    seems   to   be   questioned   by   Oscar 


THE   STAE   SPANGLED   BANNER  87 

George  Theodore  Sonneck,  Chief  of  the  Di- 
vision of  Music,  Library  of  Congress,  in  a 
book  compiled  by  him,  entitled  "A  Report 
on  the  Star  Spangled  Banner,  Hail  Colum- 
bia, America,  Etc.,"  1909,  issued  as  a  gov- 
ernment  publication   and   printed   at   the 
Government  Printing  Office.    It  would  ap- 
pear that  he  prefers  to  accept  the  version 
that  Dr.  Beans  was  taken  prisoner  by  the 
British  because  of  his  unwarranted  arrest 
of  the  British  soldiers  when  the  Doctor  was 
in  the  state  of  intoxication  due  to  having 
imbibed  too  freely  of  ' '  good  punch. ' '    Suf- 
fice it  to  say  that  those  who  accept  such  a 
view  of  the  matter  mistake  entirely  the 
character  of  Mr.  Key.     He  would  never 
have  interested  himself  in  Dr.  Beans'  re- 
lease had  such  been  the  cause  of  the  Doc- 
tor's arrest,  for  he  had  no  sympathy  for 
those  who  bring  trouble  on  themselves  by 
reason  of  their  excesses.    As  for  the  state- 
ment that  Mr.  Sands  first  set  the  song  in 
type,    his    own    letter,    herein    published, 
wherein  he  states  affirmatively  that  he  did 
so,  and  the  circumstances  he  relates  under 
which  he  was  called  upon  to  set  the  song  in 
type,   is   a   sufficient   justification,   and   it 
is    submitted    better    evidence    that    the 
claims  of  friends  and  descendants  of  others 
anxious  to  gain  some  share  in  the  honor 
connected  with  writing  and  publishing  the 


88  FRANCIS   SCOTT    KEY 

National  Anthem.  It  is  most  unfortunate 
that  such  errors  should  appear  in  a  publi- 
cation bearing  the  official  stamp  of  our  gov- 
ernment. 


OLD     KEY     HOME     IN     GEORGETOWN 
In  danger  of  destruction  unless  saved  by  the  American  People 


CHAPTER  VII. 

The  Old  Georgetown  Home 

On  old  Bridge  Street,  now  known  as  M 
Street,  one  half  block  from  what  was  for- 
merly the  Aqueduct  Bridge,  stands  to  this 
day  an  old  colonial  house,  two  stories  and 
gable  roof,  with  dormer  windows.  To  the 
right  of  the  house  as  you  enter  is  a  one- 
story  brick  office.  Entering  the  front  door, 
which  is  situated  at  the  extreme  left  of  the 
building,  one  enters  a  large  spacious  hall 
running  the  entire  depth  of  the  house  at 
the  end  of  which  is  a  door  which  led  origin- 
ally into  a  large  conservatory.  Midway 
the  length  of  this  hall  is  a  large  arch, 
ascending  just  to  the  rear  of  which  is  a 
colonial  stairway  leading  to  the  stories 
above.  On  the  right  of  this  hall  are  two 
large  spacious  parlors,  while  in  the  base- 
ment below  is  the  dining  room,  kitchen,  and 
"cold  room'' — a  bricked-up  room,  with 
brick  floor,  as  well,  used  as  a  refrigerator 
and  pantry.  In  the  second  story  are  two 
large  bed  rooms  and  large  hall  room,  while 

89 


90  FEANCIS    SCOTT    KEY 

the  third  floor  contains  four  bed  rooms. 
The  window  panes  are  small,  about  four  by 
six  inches  in  size,  supported  in  heavy 
sashes,  as  was  the  custom  in  the  days  of  a 
century  ago.  In  this  now  old  historic  land- 
mark of  the  National  Capital,  Mr.  Key 
lived  with  his  family  for  many  years.  It 
was  here  that  all  of  his  children  were  born 
and  also  where  he  resided  at  the  time  of 
his  memorable  mission  to  the  British  Fleet. 
The  little  brick  office  was  his  law  office. 
The  general  appearance  of  the  place  is 
very  different,  of  course,  to-day  from  what 
it  was  then.  The  one-time  beautiful  gar- 
dens in  the  rear  of  the  house,  which  sloped 
gracefully  to  the  edge  of  the  river,  have 
given  way  to  building  sites  for  large  fac- 
tories, warehouses,  etc.,  while  Water  Street 
and  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Canal  tra- 
verse them  from  side  to  side.  However, 
enough  remains  to  bear  witness  as  to  what 
the  pace  at  one  time  was.  During  the  past 
two  years  the  premises  have  been  in  the 
possession  of  the  Francis  Scott  Key  Me- 
morial Association  and  kept  open  to  the 
public  with  a  view  of  awakening  sufficient 
interest  to  make  the  raising  of  the  neces- 
sary funds  for  the  purchase  and  preser- 
vation of  the  home  possible. 


THE   OLD   GEOKGETOWN    HOME  91 

The  Officers  of  the  Association  include 
the  Hon.  Henry  B.  F.  Macfarland,  Presi- 
dent; Admiral  George  Dewey,  U.  S.  N. ; 
Bear  Admiral  Winfield  S.  Schley,  U.  S.  N., 
retired,  and  others.  It  is  to  be  hoped  the 
purpose  may  be  speedily  accomplished. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

In  Conclusion. 

In  personal  appearance  Key  was  hand- 
some, his  eyes  were  dark  bine  and  his  hair 
curly,  he  wore  neither  beard  or  moustache, 
and  dressed  simply.  His  manner  was  one 
of  quiet  dignity,  and  he  was  kind  and  cour- 
teous to  all.  He  was  very  domestic  and 
devoted  to  his  home,  wife  and  children. 
Naturally  with  his  artistic  temperament  he 
was  fond  of  elegant  literature  and  of  the 
poets;  Sir  Walter  Scott  was  his  favorite. 
He  did  not  care  particularly  for  Byron, 
while  the  sentimental  Tom  Moore  he 
abhorred  to  the  point  of  requesting  his 
wife  to  burn  the  copy  of  his  poems  con- 
tained in  their  library. 

He  possessed  in  a  remarkable  degree  the 
confidence  of  all  who  knew  him.  Gentle- 
men in  writing  to  him  to  engage  his  pro- 
fessional services  frankly  state  that  they 
do  so  because  their  friends  have  recom- 
mended him  as  one  in  whom  the  utmost 
confidence  could  be  placed.  To  such  an  ex- 
tent was  confidence  reposed  in  his  profes- 
sional integrity  that    F.  S.  Lyon    writes 

92 


IN  CONCLUSION  93 

from  Demopolis,  Alabama,  requesting 
him  to  engage  the  attorney  to  appear  on 
the  opposite  side  of  a  case  in  which  he  was 
counsel.  "As  you  are  engaged  against  the 
claim  of  Follin,"  writes  Mr.  Lyon, 
"I  would  be  greatly  obliged  to  you  to  re- 
quest Mr.  Swann,  or  such  other  gentleman 
of  the  profession  as  you  may  select,  to  rep- 
resent the  interests  of  Follin's  widow  and 
children."  Another  of  his  clients  writes: 
"I  have  examined  my  business  in  the  Land 
Office  entrusted  to  your  care  and  am  happy 
to  say  that  you  have  in  every  instance 
strictly  protected  my  interest,"  while  yet 
another,  anxious,  no  doubt,  to  frequently 
hear  from  him  admonishes,  "For  a  lawyer 
to  please  his  clients  you  have  no  doubt 
known  that  it  is  required  that  he  should 
frequently  write  them." 

When  his  conscience  was  awakened  to 
the  appreciation  of  an  injury  or  injustice 
he  was  quick  to  resent  it,  and  yet,  as  he 
himself  wrote  Bishop  Kemp,  he  preferred 
to  follow  quietly  in  his  own  course  of 
Christian  duty  without  interfering  with 
others  and  to  bear  with  meekness  their  in- 
terference with  him. 

He  was  the  Recorder  of  the  City  of 
Georgetown  for  several  years  and  fre- 
quently called  upon  by  its  citizens  to  pass 
opinion  upon  drafts  of  proposed  legisla- 


94  FRANCIS   SCOTT    KEY 

tion  affecting  their  interests,  both  publicly 
and  privately. 

In  a  letter  to  Randolph  written  during 
the  early  part  of  July,  1814,  he  writes ;  the 
courts  had  been  broken  up  by  a  rumor  that 
the  British  were  ascending  the  Patuxent, 
and  he,  with  others,  marched  to  Benedict 
to  meet  and  engage  them.  Of  adventures 
by  "land  and  flood"  all  he  had  to  report 
was  being  knocked  down  by  a  "bone  of 
bacon"  and  pitched  over  "my  horse's  head 
into  the  river,"  but  he  says  this  was  quite 
enough  for  him,  and  adds  he  had  seen 
enough  of  the  wars.  As  a  youth,  such  ad- 
ventures evidently  did  not  possess  the 
same  terrors  for  him.  It  is  related  that 
while  a  student  at  St.  John's  College  he 
amused  his  fellow  students  on  one  occasion, 
to  the  edification  no  doubt  of  the  faculty, 
by  jumping  astride  a  cow  and  galloping 
wildly  about  the  campus  upon  the  fright- 
ened animal's  back.  In  after  years,  how- 
ever, he  took  life  seriously  enough,  devot- 
ing himself  largely  to  the  interest  of  others. 
Long  before  the  slavery  question  was  agi- 
tated he  freed  his  slaves,  and,  as  we  have 
seen,  interested  himself  to  no  small  extent 
in  trying  to  better  the  condition  of  the 
colored  race. 

At  Pipe  Creek,  upon  the  family  estate, 
Terra  Rubra,  he  was  wont  to  spend,  with 


IN  CONCLUSION  95 

his  family,  his  summer  vacations,  a  custom 
he  maintained  as  long  as  he  lived. 

Most  of  his  verse  was  written  spontane- 
ously and  frequently  scribbled  on  the  back 
of  old  papers  and  letters,  as  was  the  case 
of  even  The  Star  Spangled  Banner.  It 
would  appear  that  just  as  the  inspiration 
struck  him  he  would  jot  down  his  thoughts 
upon  anything  handy.  One  little  unpub- 
lished verse  appears  upon  the  back  of  the 
rough  draft  of  a  proposed  contract  between 
himself  and  a  young  law  student  anxious 
to  study  law  under  him.    It  is  as  follows : 

'Tis  a  point  I  long  to  know, 
Oft  it  causes  anxious  thought. 
Do  I  love  the  Lord  or  no, 
Am  I  His  or  am  I  not? 

On  the  whole  he  can  without  hesitation 
be  pronounced  a  man.  His  character  in- 
spires and  stimulates  all  who  learn  it  to 
emulate  him  in  everything  and  to  love  no- 
bleness. 


CHAPTER  IX 

Heaven  Claims  Its  Own. 

On  a  mid-winter's  day,  the  11th  of  Jan- 
nary,  1843,  within  a  gun's  shot  of  the  fort 
whose  stubborn  defense  will  ever  be  per- 
petuated in  the  beautiful  lines  of  his  im- 
mortal verse,  Heaven  claimed  its  own,  and 
the  Christian  soul  which  had  given  the  man 
his  great  strength  of  character,  found  its 
reward  in  the  ' '  full  glory ' '  of  the  life  here- 
after. 

It  was  while  on  a  professional  visit  to 
Baltimore,  at  the  home  of  his  eldest  daugh- 
ter, Mrs.  Charles  Howard,  that  Mr.  Key 
breathed  his  last,  upon  which  site  now 
stands  the  Mount  Vernon  Place  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church.  A  few  days  later  the 
Honorable  Hugh  L.  Legare,  the  Attorney 
General,  announced  his  death  to  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  United  States  on  be- 
half of  the  Bar  of  that  court,  with  the  fol- 
lowing tribute : 

"My  acquaintance  with  the  excellent  man, 
whose  sudden  death  in  the  midst  of  a  career  of 
eminent  usefulness,  public  and  private,  and  of 
the  most  active  devotion  to  the  great  interest 
of  humanity,  we  are  now  called  upon  to  de- 
plore, was  until  a  very  recent  period  extremely 

96 


HEAVEN  CLAIMS  ITS  OWN  97 

limited.  But  short  as  was  my  personal  inter 
course  with  him,  it  was  quite  long  enough  tc 
endear  him  to  me  in  a  peculiar  manner,  as  one 
of  the  most  gentle,  guileless,  amiable  and  at- 
tractive beings  with  whom,  in  an  experience 
sufficiently  diversified,  it  has  been  my  good 
fortune  to  act.  Ardent,  earnest,  indefatigable 
in  the  pursuit  of  his  objects,  and  the  perform- 
ance of  his  duties,  eloquent  as  the  advocate  of 
whatever  cause  he  embraced,  because  his  heart 
was  true  and  his  sympathy  cordial  and  sus- 
ceptible, decided  in  his  conduct  without  one 
particle  of  censoriousness  or  ascerbity  towards 
others;  with  the  blandest  manners,  the  most 
affectionate  temper,  the  most  considerate  tol- 
eration of  dissent,  the  most  patient  acquies- 
cence in  the  decisions  of  authority,  even  where 
he  had  the  most  strenuously  exerted  himself  to 
prevent  them,  his  life  seemed  to  me  a  beautiful 
pattern  of  all  that  is  lovely,  winning  and  ef- 
fective in  the  charity  of  a  Christian  gentle- 
man.*' 

Mr.  Justice  Thompson,  in  the  absence 
of  the  Chief  Justice,  Mr.  Key's  brother-in- 
law,  who,  of  course,  was  not  present,  re- 
plied in  part  as  follows : 

"Mr.  Key's  talents  were  of  a  very  high  order. 
His  mind  was  stored  with  legal  learning,  and 
his  literary  taste  and  attainments  were  highly 
distinguished,  and  added  to  these,  was  a  pri- 
vate character  which  holds  out  to  the  bar  a 
bright  example  for  imitation.  The  loss  of  such 
a  man  cannot  but  be  sincerely  deplored." 

Under  date  of  Cambridge,  Mass.,  March 
25, 1843,  Mr.  Justice  Story  wrote  the  Chief 
Justice  as  follows: 


98  FRANCIS   SCOTT   KEY 

"I  was  exceedingly  grieved  in  hearing  of  the 
death  of  Key.  His  excellent  talents,  his  high 
morals,  his  warm  and  active  benevolence,  and 
his  most  amiable  and  gentle  temper  endeared 
him  to  all  who  knew  him.  To  you  and  Mrs. 
Taney  the  loss  is  irreparable,  and  to  the  public, 
in  the  truest  sense  of  the  word,  a  deep  calam- 
ity." 

Even  so  the  flag  of  the  free  will  ever  be 
his  best  memorial,  for  his  praise  will  be 
sung  whenever  and  wherever  are  heard  the 
words  of  his  song.  To  all  generations  the 
departed  patriot  will  thus  make  known  the 
true  genius  and  inspiration  of  patriotism. 

"I  have  been  a  base  and  grovelling  thing, 
And  the  dust  of  the  earth  my  home, 

But  now  I  know  that  the  end  of  my  woe, 
And  the  day  of  my  bliss,  is  come. 

Then    let    them,  like    me,    make    ready    their 
shrouds, 
Nor  shrink  from  the  mortal  strife, 
And  like  me  they  shall  sing,  as  to  heaven  they 
spring, 
Death  is  not  the  end  of  life." 

—Key. 


KEY     MONUMENT    AT    GRAVE 
Mount  Olivet  Cemetery,  Frederick,  Md. 


APPENDIX 


100  FKANCIS    SCOTT    KEY 


THE  STAR  SPANGLED  BANNER 

O  say !  can  you  see,  by  the  dawn's  early  light, 
What  so  proudly  we  hailed,  at  the  twilight's 
last  gleaming? 
Whose  broad  stripes  and  bright  stars  through 
the  perilous  fight, 
O'er  the  ramparts  we  watched,  were  so  gal- 
lantly streaming; 

And  the  rockets'  red  glare,  the  bombs  bursting 

in  air, 
Gave  proof  through  the  night  that  our  flag  was 

still  there; 
O  say,  does  that  Star   Spangled  Banner  yet 

wave 
O'er  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of  the 

brave? 

On  that  shore,  dimly  seen  through  the  mists  of 
the  deep, 
Where  the  foe's  haughty  host  in  dread  silence 
reposes, 
What  is  that  which  the  breeze,  o'er  the  tower- 
ing steep, 
As  it  fitfully  blows,  now  conceals,  now  dis- 
closes ? 

Now  it  catches  the  gleam  of  the  morning's  first 
beam, 

In    full    glory    reflected    now    shines    in    the 
stream : 

'Tis  the  Star  Spangled  Banner;  O  long  may  it 
wave 

O'er  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of  the 
brave ! 

And  where  are  the  foes  who  so  vauntingly 
swore 
That  the  havoc  of  war,  and  the  battle's  con- 
fusion, 


APPENDIX  101 

A  home  and  a  country  should  leave  us  no 
more: 
Their  blood  has  washed  out  their  foul  foot- 
steps' pollution; 

No  refuge  could  save  the  hireling  and  slave 

From  the  terror  of  flight,  or  the  gloom  of  the 
grave ; 

And   the   Star   Spangled   Banner   in   triumph 
doth  wave 

O'er  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of  the 
brave ! 

O  thus  be  it  ever,  when  freeman  shall  stand 
Between   their  loved  homes  and  the  war's 
desolation ; 

Blest  with  victory  and  peace,  may  the  heav'n- 
rescued  land 
Praise  the  Power  that  hath  made  and  pre- 
served us  a  nation ! 

Then  conquer  we  must,  when  our  cause  it  is 
just, 

And  this  be  our  motto,  "In  God  is  our  trust;" 

And   the   Star   Spangled   Banner   in   triumph 
shall  wave 

O'er  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of  the 
brave ! 


102 


FRANCIS  SCOTT  KEY 


HYMN 

Lord,  with  glowing  heart  I'd  praise  thee 

For  the  bliss  thy  love  bestows, 
For  the  pardoning  grace  that  saves  me, 

And  the  peace  that  from  it  flows. 
Help,  O  God!  my  weak  endeavor, 

This  dull  soul  to  rapture  raise; 
Thou  must  light  the  flame,  or  never 

Can  my  love  be  warmed  to  praise. 

Praise,  my  soul,  the  God  that  sought  thee, 

Wretched  wanderer,  far  astray; 
Found  thee  lost,  and  kindly  brought  thee 

From  the  paths  of  death  away. 
Praise,  with  love's  devoutest  feeling, 

Him  who  saw  thy  guilt-born  fear, 
And,  the  light  of  hope  revealing, 

Bade  the  blood-stained  cross  appear. 

Lord!  this  bosom's  ardent  feeling 

Vainly  would  my  lips  express ; 
Low  before  thy  foot-stool  kneeling. 

Deign  thy  suppliant's  prayer  to  bless. 
Let  thy  grace,  my  soul's  chief  treasure, 

Love's  pure  flame  within  me  raise; 
And,  since  words  can  never  measure, 

Let  my  life  show  forth  thy  praise. 


APPENDIX  103 


A  RIDDLE.* 

I  made  myself,  and  though  no  form  have  I, 
Am  fairer  than  the  fairest  you  can  spy; 
The  sun  I  outshine  in  his  mid-day  light, 
And  yet  am  darker  than  the  darkest  night; 
Hotter  I  am  than  fire,  than  ice  more  cold, 
Richer  than  purest  gems  of  finest  gold, 
Yet  I  am  never  either  bought  or  sold; 
The  man  that  wants  me,  never  yet  was  seen ; 
The  poor  alone  possess  me;  yet  the  mean 
And  grudging  rich  oft  give  me  to  the  poor, 
Who  yet  are  not  made  richer  than  before; 
The  blindest  see  me,  and  the   deafest  hear; 
Cowards  defy  me,  and  the  bravest  fear: 
If  you're  a  fool,  you  know  me;  if  you  grow 
In  knowledge,  me  you  will  soon  cease  to  know. 
Get  me — and  low  and  poor  thy  state  will  be ; 
Forget  me — and  no  equal  shalt  thou  see. 
Xow    catch    me    if    you    can — I'm    sometimes 

caught, 
Though  never  thought  worth  catching,  never 

sought. 
Am  I  still  hid?  then  let  whoever  tries 
To  see  me,  give  it  up,  and  shut  his  eyes. 

*The  above  conundrum  in  verse  was  com- 
posed by  Mr.  Key  at  a  dinner  party  when  the 
company  present  after  dinner  were  engaged  in 
asking  and  solving  riddles.  It  was,  therefore, 
written  upon  the  spur  of  the  moment  as  is  true 
of  most  all  of  Mr.  Key's  poetry,  including,  as 
we  have  seen,  even  the  Star  Spangled  Banner. 
The  answer  to  the  conundrum  is,  "nothing" 
which  when  perceived  demonstrated  the  clever- 
ness of  the  author. 


104  FRANCIS  SCOTT  KEY 


Inscription  in  St.  John's  Church.  Georgetown 


JOHANNES  I.  SAYRS. 

"'Hujus  ecclesiae  rector  primus  hie  quo, 
Christi  servus,  fideliter  ministrabat, 

Sepultus,  jacet." 

Here  once  stood  forth  a  man  who  from  the 

world, 
Though  bright  its  aspect  to  the  youthful  eye, 
Turned  with  affection  ardent  to  his  God, 
And  lived  and  died  an  humble  minister 
Of  His  benignant  purposes  to  man. 
Here  lies  he  now;  yet  grive  not  thou  for  him, 
Reader !    He  trusted  in  that  love  where  none 
Have  ever  vainly  trusted.    Rather  let 
His  marble  speak  to  thee;  and  should'st  thou 

feel 
The  rising  of  a  new  and  solemn  thought, 
Waked  by  this  sacred  place  and  sad  memorial, 
O,  listen  to  its  impulse! — 'tis  divine — 
And  it  shall  lead  thee  to  a-  life  of  peace, 
A  death  of  hope,  and  endless  bliss  hereafter. 


